


Snatcher is a Friend

by DeckofDragons



Series: Celebrating the New Year, New Decade, and 100+ Followers Drabble Event [7]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dadcher, Fluff, Gen, Hat Kid is a sweetheart, Murder, Sentient AI, Snatcher is a traumatized noodle in need of therapy, Snatcher sews and knits, Therapy, Violence, attempted deforestation, deaths that result in ghosts, ghost kid, most of these drabbles are fluff, not all off them though, there are warnings in that notes for the chapters that need them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 41
Words: 45,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22239427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Drabbles written for my drabble event that prominently feature Snatcher. (Despite the title Snatcher isn't exactly super friendly in all of these)
Relationships: Bow Kid & Hat Kid & Mustache Girl & Snatcher (A Hat in Time), Cooking Cat & Snatcher (A Hat in Time), Hat Kid & Snatcher (A Hat in Time), Moonjumper & Snatcher (A Hat in Time), Snatcher & Rumbi, Snatcher & Snatcher's Minions (A Hat in Time)
Series: Celebrating the New Year, New Decade, and 100+ Followers Drabble Event [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1599667
Comments: 178
Kudos: 510





	1. Rumbi

**Author's Note:**

> Request for my drabble event from an anon
> 
> "prompt: Rumbi can get lonely when hat kid isn’t on board and cooking cat doesn’t like when they get under her paws in the kitchen so when snatcher is on board they hang around him and snatcher has weirdly gotten used to it and subconsciously try’s petting em like a cat from time to time while he reads; and that’s it that’s the promt data use it as you will (did i do this right?)"

Cooking Cat placed Rumbi back in the central room, speaking in an alien language. Rumbi was a vacuum, not a robot that needed to understand many words and thus couldn’t translate it. Her tone was annoyed though; Rumbi was _not_ welcome in the kitchen while she was cooking in there.

Rumbi hadn’t _meant_ to get in the way or be a bother. They’d just been doing their job, cleaning. The central room was clean. It only really got dirty when Hat Kid returned tracking mud or some other substance that Rumbi’s sensors deemed a target in need of cleaning up. She’d been gone for a while though. So Rumbi had moved on to cleaning other others, first the machine room which the band owls had kicked and locked them out of and now the kitchen was forbidden to.

With the robotic equivalent of a sigh, Rumbi turned and started for Hat Kid’s room. They of course, vacuumed the hallway on the way there. It had been a while since they’d been down this way so there was a lot to pick up, alleviating Rumbi’s programmed need to be doing something even if it didn’t do much for the need for company that had come from somewhere and was probably a fluke.

In Hat Kid’s room though was the ghost she called ‘Snatcher’. He looked up from his book as Rumbi entered and frowned. Oh no, _another_ room Rumbi wasn’t allowed in anymore because someone who _wasn’t_ Hat Kid didn’t want them in there even though only Hat Kid should have a say in such things, this being her ship after all.

But… Snatcher didn’t even move from his spot. Instead he looked back down at his book and resumed reading. … That was just fine with Rumbi. They started vacuuming, hopefully Snatcher wouldn’t mind.

Turns out he didn’t mind at all. Even when Rumbi started going around the room for a second time, making sure they hadn’t missed anything. And well… it was the only room on the ship that who had someone in it who _didn’t_ want to kick them out so Rumbi wanted to stay for a bit. Fluke or not, the need for company was rather bothersome at times.

On the third go around, when Rumbi was scooting around Snatcher again, he reached a hand out to lightly pat them. It was _clearly_ a thoughtless action as he was still focused on his reading but… it was nice. Nice enough that Rumbi _may_ have returned to his side a short while later without going over the rest of the room again to get another small pet.

This touch lingered a bit longer before Snatcher seemed to realize what he was doing and stopped. That was fine though, with how focused he was on reading, Rumbi could probably come back for another pet soon.


	2. The Forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from anon: "promt request: snatcher hasn’t always been so murdery with outsiders, over time since his death by his ex, many people have come through with bad intentions, whether it be looting or exorcism, but by far the thing that set him over the edge and made all outsiders a threat would be when those guys came in with their equipment, started acting like they owned the place and begun demolishing His forest, he stopped them but that area is still on fire today, ok maybe part of the fire is his but still!"

There were _more_ people in the forest, ignoring the fence and all the ‘KEEP OUT!’ and ‘DANGER!’ signs set up around the perimeter that had taken more than a whole _year_ for the Subconites to set up. It was _fine_ though as long as they weren’t here to hunt ghosts or attempt to exorcise them. If they were, they’d find out where Snatcher’s new name came from.

Using his still relatively new ghost powers – strengthened by whatever Moonjumper had done to him and further bolstered by consuming the souls of the people who’d tried to hurt him or his followers – Snatcher followed them; unseen and unheard. All he could tell for sure right now was that they were professionals of some sort. What kind? He couldn’t guess; he was too far away to read the company name on their uniforms.

There were four of them. One had a clipboard, clearly the leader of the group based off the way the others fell in step just behind him. They were unfortunately speaking too low for Snatcher to make out what they were saying so he couldn’t even guess what they might be here for. They didn’t _look_ like exorcists or ghost hunters though so… he’d just watched for now.

After a couple hours of walking around, discussing whatever it was they were discussing, they left. Odd but whatever, Snatcher didn’t care. Whatever their intentions had been in coming here didn’t matter because they hadn’t caused harm. So they were fine.

Except they came back the next day. And there were more of them, _a lot_ more. _And_ they brought equipment, lots of it. How they’d set up so fast overnight was a borderline miracle but as Snatcher arrived on the scene they were already well settled into destroying the forest.

Snatcher quickly located the leader of the now large group: the same guy as yesterday, clipboard still in hand. “ _What_ do you think you’re doing?” he said, coming out of the shadows, making his form as big as he comfortably could to loom over the clipboard guy.

The small fry all flinched and cowered away, a couple even took off running while others froze solid, but clipboard man was seemingly unphased. He looked right up at Snatcher with an annoyed frowned. “You’re the Soul Snatcher I presume. I was warned about you so I brought a team of professional exorcists.”

As if on que, a large group of exorcists came out of the tent set up to the side as a clear base of operations. There was a lot of them, maybe even enough that they _might_ pose a small threat to Snatcher.

“Get out, _now_ , all of you. This is the only warning you get.” Snatcher wasn’t a bad guy; he always gave people the chance to leave. It’s why he hadn’t jumped on this asshole yesterday. The fact that very few people accepted his offer to get out wasn’t his fault. “This forest is mine so I want _you_ and all of your equipment and people gone in an _hour_ , got it?” Part of him hoped they wouldn’t comply, he _wanted_ to destroy the equipment at least; just looking at it made him boil with rage. How _dare_ anyone come in here and try to take down his forest?

“Legally, this forest belongs to me,” clipboard man said with a sneer, _really_ pushing his luck. “With every royal in Subcon wiped out or locked up insane in the iced over manor, I have bought the land. Everything here belongs to me now. So this is _your_ last warning to get out before I…”

His tone and words on top of the situation as a whole made something inside Snatcher snap. Without even _really_ know what he was doing, he expended some of the power in him, creating a blast of energy underneath the target of his wrath. It shot up out of the ground, vibrantly multicoloured and deadly.

Clipboard man came out the other end of it alive but screaming as he fell to the ground, his clothes on fire, his flesh badly burnt. Pandemonium descended upon the scene. The workers took off sprinting as the exorcists pulled out their magic charms or religious symbols depending on what kind of exorcist there were and started their chanting.

Snatcher snarled and summoned another ring of destruction underneath them. And another and another and another and so on, destroying everything he saw that made him mad. The workers, running or not, the exorcists, and most of all the _foul_ deforestation equipment.

He was _done_ with being a nice guy. If people thought they could come in here and claim _his_ forest as their own and _destroy_ it, they were _mistaken_. He wasn’t going to tolerate it anymore; no more second chances, no more benefit of the doubt. From now on anyone who came into his forest was as good as dead.

Eventually he expended all his power, draining him of his rage too and leaving him panting. He looked around to see he’d destroyed more than he’d intended. Everyone was dead, burnt charred corpses lay everywhere, several reduced to little more than blackened bones. The equipment was in shambles, its purpose no longer even recognizable. But… the forest surrounding him was on fire too!

He needed to put it out before it spread! … Except it wasn’t spreading? Nor did it seem to be destroying anything further? … It was magic fire; he’d seen such before. … It could stay for now; he’d keep an eye on it and put it out if it caused problems. Otherwise he was okay with it, it would serve to remind him _not_ to be merciful to intruders ever again. It just wasn’t worth it.


	3. Therapy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from anon: "if you’re still doing prompt requests, snatcher gets therapy, either he goes to a therapist or a therapist comes to him but can he please get some therapy"

“Dad.”

Snatcher lowered his book to look at Hat Kid standing before him. Even if he had legally adopted her, he still felt weird when she referred to him as her father in anyway. He would _really_ prefer if she didn’t; he wasn’t dad material even if he _had_ taken on the legal role of it willingly. “What do you want?” he said with a sigh because she had that look on her face that said she wanted something that he _probably_ wasn’t going to be pleased with.

“Well, I’ve been to town, the one _just_ outside the forest that you buy your books from.” She rocked back forth on her heels, holding her hands behind her back; more evidence of an impending desire of hers that he wouldn’t like. “I talked around with some people _and_ I may have booked you an appointment with a therapist, _supposedly_ a very good one. It’s tomorrow at five o’clock in the evening.” Yep, there it was.

He frowned. “Why?”

“Because you need help. And I’m just a kid and don’t really know a whole lot about that stuff even if you _were_ willing to talk to me about it so I can’t really help as much I as wish I could. So, I did this instead because otherwise I know you won’t seek help.”

Snatcher shut his book hard enough for it to make a sound before placing it on the table. “Kid, I don’t need ‘help’. I don’t know _why_ you think I do.”

She stilled her swaying to give him a serious look. “Even if I don’t know the whole story, heck I probably don’t know much of it at all, I do know enough about Vanessa and your relationship with her to know that it was _very_ bad. I read parts of her diary, she was abusive and _horrible_. And that’s not even _mentioning_ how and why you died.”

“That’s all in the past, I’ve moved past it.” Snatcher made a dismissive hand wave to emphasize his point. That was like three hundred years ago, he was _fine_ now.

“ _Really_? You’ve moved past it, huh? Then do you maybe what to explain why any movie, book, or TV show that heavily features romance makes you so angry? Or why you get nervous and extra grouchy and then extra clingy whenever it snows more than a little bit? Or what about the other day when you advised me to never fall in love?”

“That’s _perfectly_ sound advice. Love is lie, when you grow up, if someone ever tells you they love you, run away and never look back. If they persist, kill them. If you get in trouble with the law for it, come to me, I’ll take care of it.” Through legal means or not. “As for that other stuff, yeah, I don’t like the snow, you know why. It’s not a problem though. And romance is like I said, a lie, it’s _also_ overused in fiction so _of course_ I hate it. I’m allowed to have preferences, you know?”

She frowned at him even harder. “You only just made your case worse. You _need_ help. And as your adopted daughter, it is my duty to help you _get_ that help.”

Snatcher sighed. “Really? I don’t think that’s how this works. Shouldn’t I be taking care of and helping _you_?”

“When I need it, yes. But it goes the other way too. So… would you pretty please at least go the therapist’s appointment tomorrow? You don’t have commit to anything fully yet just… give it few sessions to try it for me?” She put her hands together in a pleading gesture, giving him her puppy dog eyes.

He crossed his arms and looked away. “I can’t. I have reputation to uphold. Having you around is already risking it enough as is.”

“But…”

Snatcher lifted a hand to cut her off. “Before you say whatever you’re about to say, my reputation is the main thing that keeps people _out_ of this forest.” Only fools and the occasional daredevil or drunken lost idiot entered. “If I left or people got word that I became soft or weak, the ghost hunters would come in droves to prove themselves and the exorcists wanting to ‘ _purify_ ’ the place would come with them. Right behind them would be the people wanting to take down the entire forest and turn it into a shopping mall or whatever. I _hate_ dealing with those kinds of people so I’m _not_ doing anything that invites them in.” And the further away threats to his Subconites and forest were, the better.

“Oh, well… you can change your shape and I think I’ve heard you change your voice a few times too. Just do that and wear a disguise that covers all your ghostliness and a mask to cover your face and that should be fine, right? I know that’s what you do when you go to town to buy your books so it should work here too. No one has to know it’s the big bad Snatcher getting therapy. I only told the therapist that it was my dad who needed help, no one knows you adopted me so… you’ll be fine… right?”

That would probably work but… “I don’t need it kid, I _really_ don’t. I appreciate you want to help but you’re just a kid so you’re misinterpreting things. I _don’t_ need help.”

She pouted, tears even came to her eyes, making him feel bad. “I’m _not_ misinterpreting things. I’m _smart_ , remember? I know how to fly and maintain a spaceship for peck’s sake so I’m _not_ stupid.” … She kind of did have a point, she was no ordinary kid. “I just… don’t like seeing you hurting and handling things in such unhealthy ways. So, please, just a few sessions won’t hurt, right? Just try it out please.”

He frowned at her or tried to. He wanted to hold his ground; he didn’t need help; he was a powerful ghost feared across the land. People wrote horror stories about him. He’d killed hundreds of people with no remorse. He had no need to fear anything ever again because he had _power_ now, _lots_ of it; no one could ever hurt him the way Vanessa had ever again. … But, despite himself, he also had a soft spot of Hat Kid, it’s why he’d adopted her so… “Fine,” he said with a resigned sigh. “If it’ll make you happy and gets you to leave me alone about it, I’ll go to the damn therapy appointment tomorrow.”

“Yay!” Hat Kid jumped up in joy and ran over to give him a hug. “You won’t regret it, I promise.”

If it made her _this_ happy, he wouldn’t, though he wasn’t going to tell her that. “Yeah, sure, whatever.”


	4. Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Request from anon:
> 
> "if you’re still doing prompt requests i’ve had a thought that might be good for it: basically what if turning snatcher blue with his attack didn’t actually make him vulnerable but some part of him was genuinely surprised and impressed by the out of the box loophole hat kid thought of that he “let it count”"

Despite how long Snatcher had been abiding by his self-imposed rule of ‘anyone who enters his forest is as good as dead’, he’d never killed a child. A few teens, some of them young teens, sure, but never an actual child. Normally they had parents or guardians who made sure they stayed away from the forest. Or failing that, the spookiness of the place – doubled up on at the borders – coupled with the fence and myriad ‘DANGER’ and ‘KEEP OUT’ type signs kept them from entering.

Hat Kid however clearly did not any adults trying to keep her safe anywhere nearby. Nor did she seem to have much fear at all towards him or anything in the forest, it was admirable. It _almost_ made him wish he didn’t have to kill her. But he would, he couldn’t just let her leave and there was a first time for everything.

When it came time for it, he stole her hat, sealing his victory because that’s where all her power came from. But even without it she proved rather nimble, dodging his attacks. A bit frustrating but unsurprising given what he’d seen she was capable of. That was fine though, she couldn’t dodge forever.

“You’re probably waiting for me to turn blue, aren’t you?” he taunted because _why not_? “Sorry kiddo, blue doesn’t suit me. And I guess that makes me invincible, huh? That’s too bad!” He chuckled to make sure it really stung.

She stuck her tongue out at him in response; kind of cute in an annoying way. Certainly, a very brave move considering the circumstances. It _really_ was a shame she had to die, huh? So much potential wasted. Oh well, wasn’t his problem.

He kept throwing stuff at her and she kept dodging. But during his next barrage of exploding potions she _somehow_ managed to get her hands on one without it going off. How, he wasn’t sure he hadn’t seen it amongst all the explosions. He did however see her throw it right at him.

He flinched as it hit him, exploding. It didn’t hurt but it wasn’t pleasant either. Even knowing he shouldn’t be damaged, he looked down at himself anyway – some instincts stuck around even after death. He was… covered in the blue potion.

“Did you just colour me blue with my own attack?” Astonished, he looked back up at Hat Kid. “This can’t count, right? _Surely_ that doesn’t count.” There was _no way_ it did, he wasn’t _actually_ blue, just covered in blue stuff. … No one else he’d ever fought had done such a thing to him even though all of his previous opponents should’ve been _much_ more aware of the ‘blue equals vulnerable’ law of magic than an alien who’d just learned it days ago. And she was just a _kid_ too. …

Peck it! Let it count. He was a lawyer; in a courtroom such a thing would’ve counted as a loophole in the law. So, he’d abide by it, he’d let himself be vulnerable to attack. Why not? It would add a bit more drama to the fight and he needed some of that in his life occasionally. There was still no way she’d beat him though because he was done going easy on her, she clearly didn’t need him to.


	5. Nooses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon request:
> 
> "prompt request about the subconites, they are ghosts in plush dolls, they can’t die by strangulation, so sometimes they take turns “hanging” to freak out new people, most don’t mind because they find it weirdly comfortable and even take naps like this just because, the fact they look a little different when they sleep only adds to the creep out factor helping make people forget that they’re ghosts; they decided to do this on their own, snatcher toootaly didn’t freak out the first time (he did)"

Snatcher frowned at the empty noose hanging above the swamp. He hadn’t put it there and if someone had put it there to use, it wouldn’t be empty – or would’ve at least shown signs of wear – meaning… Ah! The Subconites must’ve put it up. They were helping with the strengthened rule of ‘keep outsiders out of the forest’ that went with the new rule of ‘everyone who entered the forest must die’. Good! He hadn’t even needed to tell them to do that.

Proud of his followers’ initiative, Snatcher continued on, skirting around the swamp. Patrolling the forest _probably_ wasn’t necessary but… he got paranoid about things sometimes such as a _certain_ _person_ breaking out of their icy manor and invading his forest and taking it away like she’d done with so many other things. Going around making doubly sure she wasn’t in his space helped soothe him and it gave him something to do other than read so… whatever. He didn’t have to ever admit to anyone he was doing it because he was paranoid and didn’t yet _quite_ trust his new magic sense that let him know that _she_ was still in the manor.

He paused as he spotted more nooses hanging over the swamp, above one of the walkways put up for the Subconites’ benefit. These weren’t empty though. Three of them had figures hanging from them: _Subconites_! Hanging limp and lifeless, their soul lights extinguished.

Nuh-uh, no way was he going to lose any of his people like that. Snatcher rushed over and morphed his hand into a claw to slash the ropes. Though it was probably too late, wasn’t it? How long had they’d been hanging there? What were the chances that they were…

When they hit the wooden walkway, they let out startled yelps, their soul lights bursting back to life. Thank goodness!

“What was that for?” one of them said as the three of them sat up.

“Yeah Boss, there are better ways to wake us up, you know,” another said as they stood up.

“Uh guys,” the third spoke up. “I don’t think he was trying to wake us up. I think he thought we were maybe uh… you know, dead again or… something, right?”

And suddenly all three of them were looking at him, staring. … They’d been sleeping, not dead at all. They’re soul lights hadn’t been extinguished, just dimmed because they’d been asleep because ghosts possessing dolls _could_ sleep. They couldn’t even die; they were already dead _and_ possessing dolls made of cloth that didn’t even have fake lungs, meaning they _couldn’t_ breathe even if they’d wanted to and _certainly_ didn’t need to. How could Snatcher have _possibly_ forgotten that even for a moment?

“No,” he said, putting on a grin. “I was just uh…” What would be a believable lie?

“Sorry Boss,” they said in unison before he could come up with one. “We didn’t mean to scare you.” “We probably should’ve told you we were starting to do that kind of thing, huh?” “Yeah, it’s fun and should scare anyone who trespasses in the forest.” “But uh… do you maybe not want us to do it anymore?”

“No, no, no.” Snatcher waved aside that suggestion. “It’s genius actually.” It didn’t hurt them but it was a striking sight and should scare outsiders. “Good job coming up with it, definitely keep doing it. But uh… _next_ time one you comes up with an idea like that, tell me first.” He didn’t think he could take another fright like that.

“Got it Boss.” “Sorry again for scaring you.” “Yeah and uh… we won’t tell anyone how worried you were. We know you want to come off as an uncaring badass.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I have important work I need to get back to.” He turned away and quickly moved on before he could embarrass himself any further. Great, now he was even more tense than he’d been before. Whatever, he’d go back to making doubly sure the ice bitch wasn’t in his forest, trying to steal it, that should calm him down some.


	6. Squeaky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon request:
> 
> "a silly little prompt for ya, there is at least one subconite that wanted to go all the way with being a stuffed toy, and asked snatcher to make their toy body be squeaky; if you’re gonna be a phlushy might as well go all the way right? i just thought this idea might be fun for ya"

Snatcher’s knitting and sewing skills were being put to the ultimate test. In life, those skills had always been serviceable, if he needed to fix a tear in a piece of clothing or make a scarf or occasional not _quite_ right looking pair of socks, no problem. Making a shirt or pants was a bit harder but doable even if it wouldn’t look good. Looking good didn’t matter though as long as it served its purpose.

He’d _never_ made a doll while alive though. He never would’ve thought knowing how would ever come in handy. But knitting and sewing were the only skills he had that would let him make bodies for the Subconites. He would’ve loved to make their bodies out of something more durable but… he didn’t exactly have time to learn a whole new skill to do that, especially with how many he had to make.

His first batch started falling about within days, a week or two for the latter half. Some he had to remake entirely, others patching and only redoing a small part was good enough. The more dolls he made and the more he patched them up, the better he got at it. The Subconites still kept coming in every so often for repairs but it was becoming more and more infrequent as his repairs and entirely redone dolls got better and better in quality.

It still happened often enough though that when a knock came on the side of the big hollow tree he’d claimed as his own, interrupting his reading, he had to hold back a groan of frustration. _Why_ did making dolls have to be so hard? Why couldn’t the stitches and the stuffing just do what he wanted it to and _stay_ that way? And every since he’d made that deal with Subconites, he’d make them bodies if they worked for him, the vast majority of his time had been spent working on their bodies, he wanted a break. But he was ruler of the forest now, they were his people, he was responsible for them and their wellbeing so…

“Come in,” he said as he put down his book.

The little Subconite poked in his head in before shyly entering. Strange, he didn’t look damaged or like he was falling apart. Maybe there was a tear on his back, underneath the cloak.

“Hey Boss,” he said with a little wave.

“Uh, yeah, hello. What do you want?”

“Well uh… I _know_ you’ve been busy repairing everyone’s bodies and stuff. But um… I was wondering if you could perhaps make some modifications to mine.”

“Depends on what kind of modifications you _want_.”

The Subconite hesitated, looking down at the ground and wringing his hand together. “Uh… you know what, maybe I better not ask. It’s not that important anyway. So, I’ll just…”

“No,” Snatcher snapped, making the Subconite freeze after only taking a single step towards the exit. “You’ve already disturbed my reading so you’re going to tell me what you want. Spit it out.”

The Subconite turned back to face him. “Well uh… We’re _basically_ stuffed toys, right? Plushies. Which is great actually. I and everyone else are super-duper grateful you made us bodies after… you know. And we’re even _more_ grateful that you’re maintaining and repairing them. So, it’s _totally_ fine if you say ‘no’ to my request. But I was wondering since we’re already basically toys _maybe_ you could modify my body to be a bit squeaky.”

Snatcher would’ve expected a more risqué request before something like that. “Squeaky?” he asked with a chuckle. “Really?”

“Uh… yeah. I just think it’d be cute because… I used to have a squeaky toy when I was alive. It was my favourite thing and it was…” he trailed off, staring off blankly to the side. Life wasn’t something anyone wanted to think about anymore, it hurt too much.

“I’ll do it,” Snatcher said, snapping the Subconite out of it. He wasn’t sure how but given that reason he couldn’t say ‘no’. If he really needed to he could probably resort to using magic now that he had that.

“Really?” The hope in the Subconite’s voice was proof that Snatcher had made the right call.

“Yes, so come here.”


	7. Haunted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from thevalkyriewarrior
> 
> "In an effort to be a good dad, Snatcher learns to make a really durable doll for Hat Kid to use since she was upset about not having a body. (I love all your writing by the way! ^-^)"
> 
> This prompt was inspired by my Ghost Kid fic (specifically the chapter where Snatcher declines Hat Kid's request for a doll to possess) where Hat Kid is a ghost because she died. So she's dead in this drabble too, from different circumstances though. It's a sequel to my other fic Guilt, you don't need to read that to understand this but it does give proper context to a few relatively minor details.

Despite being both legally a father for just over a full year now and a ghost for three hundred something years, Snatcher had no idea how to console Hat Kid. He’d _never_ seen her cry anywhere even close to this much before. But he couldn’t blame her for doing so; dying was a very traumatic upsetting experience.

The people from her home planet had finally found her. Snatcher had killed all of them, not even bothering to snatch their souls he was so angry. But he’d arrived just a tad too late. He’d still been in the middle of his rampage when her ghost had formed meaning he hadn’t even been there to protect her from the sight of her own body lying in a pool of blood on the ground.

So now all he could do was hold her while she cried into his mane. It didn’t feel like enough though. But… what else could he possibly _do_?

Eventually he sobs started to peter out and then stop completely. Her grip on his mane even loosened some.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a whisper. “I was too slow.” If he’d shown up on the scene even just a minute or two faster, he could’ve saved her. “I should’ve come sooner. I…”

“It’s not your fault,” she interrupted, letting go of him to move back and look up at him. “Don’t blame yourself, okay?” How was he supposed to do that? “But… you killed them, right? You made them pay for… for… doing that to me, right?”

“Of course, what do you think I am, kiddo? I don’t let people get away with hurting what’s mine, _ever_.” He’d set another part of the forest on fire while he was at it too but who cared? “And if any of them ever show up again, I’ll kill them too, okay?” He forced an evil smile for her.

She nodded as she wiped away the tears leaking from her now ghostly glowing eyes. “T-thank you. But uh… I… don’t want to be dead. I know you’re dead and so are all the Subconites so I shouldn’t complain but…”

“No, it’s fine. We’ve been dead a long time but we all remember what it’s like. It’s… rough.” And she was a child, making it so much worse. But a lot of the Subconites had been children when they’d died too – children seemed have a higher chance to turn into ghosts upon death, whether that was because it was extra tragic, tragic deaths being the most common deaths that led to ghosthood, or something to do with their souls was unknown, nor did it really matter. “You’ll get used to it eventually though… probably sooner than you think.”

Hat Kid made a soft whining sound in response, hanging her head.

“Is… is there anything I can do help you feel better?” Emotional things _really_ weren’t something Snatcher knew much about even after going to therapy for half a year now.

“I… don’t know.”

“Uh… I could make you a body to possess. I did it for all the Subconites, it helped them some.”

Hat Kid perked up a bit. “Really?”

“Uh… yeah but… it won’t make you any more alive.” He needed to clarify that in case she got her hopes up. “It just makes you feel a bit better.” He’d tried it once himself, way back at the start, but he had too much power for a doll to hold, even a well-crafted one; it had completely disintegrated within an hour of him possessing it. He’d since just grown to prefer being a free-floating spirit. It wasn’t for everyone though, especially with how hard the initial transition to it was. So… “Does that sound good?”

“Uh… yeah, yes please. I want a body.” Hat Kid nodded, sniffling a little.

“All right. Give me a few days and I’ll make you one.” It wouldn’t be the same but her death already meant things would never be the same. They just had to adjust to this thing however best they could. She wasn’t gone and that’s what mattered most.

At first he started knitting another doll much like the Subconites had except he planed to make it look a bit more like Hat Kid – since he only had to make one instead of hundreds, he could afford to spend more time on it and personalize it. But while he hadn’t had a choice in what to make the Subconites bodies out of since sewing and knitting had been his only relevant skills and he didn’t exactly have time to learn a whole _new_ skill he could perhaps do so with Hat Kid’s doll.

The Subconites were made out of cloth and stuffing. Serviceable materials especially when laced with a little bit of magic but not very durable. They had to be careful about not getting too wet or too close to fire that wasn’t magical in nature. It meant they were the least dangerous things in the forest because they were literally plushies. He had the time to at least try to give Hat Kid something a bit more durable so… he should do it. What though?

It would still have to be a doll of some sort. Human shaped things were both easier and more comfortable to possess. Maybe he could try to carve a sturdy chunk of wood into the right shape, make it a bit like a puppet expect without the strings so it could move. _Or_ maybe he could try to make her a body made of metal? Basically make her a Hat Kid shaped suit of armor to possess. That’d be nigh on indestructible. It was worth a try at least. If it failed, he could go back to the puppet idea. If _that_ failed, a plush doll would have to do because it’d certainly be better than nothing.

He spent all his free time with either Hat Kid, helping her through this difficult time as best his limited ability to handle emotional things would allow him to, or working on the suit of armor. As with most things, he had books on the subject to help him through the process – having a book on making plushies would’ve been _so_ nice back when he had to make all those dolls for the Subconites but that had been before he’d started collecting books again. He had more control of his magic now too which also helped a lot.

The materials and tools he used to make it were stolen from Hat Kid’s ship or the wreckage of the ship the peck necks who’d hunted her down had used to come here. Working on it was actually a really good way to distract himself from how he could’ve and should’ve prevented her death. It also made him feel better about failing to protect because if this plan worked, almost nothing could ever hurt her ever again. … Ugh, the whole therapy nonsense was making him in tune with his emotions and motivations, _gross_.

Eventually the question had to come up though. “You… said you were making me a body,” Hat Kid asked one evening when he visited. “How’s that going?”

“Pretty good.” He couldn’t leave at that though, could he? He’d told it’d take a few days and he’d been working on it for about a week now. “I’m not making it quite like that Subconites’ bodies so it’s taking a little while. Sorry about that kiddo.”

Her face lit up with interest, _good_ anything to help her feel less miserable. “Really? How is it different?”

“You’ll see,” he replied with a sly grin.

“Ah! But I want to know.”

“Nope, I ain’t going to tell you kiddo. It’s a surprise and no amount of ugly puppy dog eyes is going to change my mind.” Let her frustrated curiosity distract her for a bit. “I ain’t going to tell you when it’s going to be finished either.” Mostly because he didn’t know either. “That’s got to be a surprise too.”

“Hmmm… I’m real excited then. Thank you, you’re the best dad.”

He wasn’t and he never would be but… he was trying his best. That’s all anyone could ever ask of him, right?

It took almost another whole week to finally finish it. It was… a suit of armor shaped like Hat Kid, the same height as when she’d died. The head had been the hardest but with a little magic and assistance from a Subconite who’d been a smith when alive, he’d gotten it about right.

Next, he sewed clothes for it. Just like Hat Kid’s normal outfit except the cape he made looked like the ones the Subconites wore. He even put her hat on it after making absolutely sure all the blood had been cleaned off. Now all that was left to do was check to make sure it wouldn’t fall to shambles when Hat Kid possessed it. It _shouldn’t_ , it was human shaped and suits of armor were the second most possessed thing after dolls but it was still possible.

“Yo kid,” he said as he popped in on Hat Kid playing with some of the Subconites. “I got a surprise for you.”

Her face lit up with excitement. “Is it the doll you made for me?”

“Bingo! Let’s go.” He snapped as he transported them through his pocket dimension to the hidden room he’d been making the ‘doll’ in.

Hat Kid let out an audible gasp soon as she saw it. “Really?” She turned her head back to look at him. “For me?”

“No, I made it look like you and dressed it up like you for one of the Subconites. I’m just showing it to you to tease you and be mean.”

She giggled a little, a sound he hadn’t heard from her in what felt like ages now. “Okay uh… how do I do the thing?”

“Just go up to it and slide into it. It should come naturally to you once you’re in the right position.”

Hat Kid floated over to hover in front of and then around behind it. She tentatively placed her hands on it shoulders. She faded into it and a second a later it jerked to life as if taking a breath, yellow light suddenly pouring out of its eye sockets.

“Oh, this feels… weird but in a good way,” she said looking down at her hands and moving them around, flexing her fingers. “Oh and I have _legs_ again.” She marched around in a little circle, clanking softly. “This is so cool! _Thank you_.” She turned back to face Snatcher. The metal face was weird to look at and the mouth couldn’t change from its soft smile but he could tell she was probably smiling internally wider than she had since before her death.

Snatcher allowed himself a small sigh of relief. It had worked and wasn’t falling apart and she was happy again. “It’s whatever,” he said, trying to wave it off as not a big deal because he didn’t want to talk about how hard he’d worked on it or why. Emotions weren’t his thing.

She wasn’t having that though. She ran over and hugged him tight. “I love you dad.”

He flinched. She’d never said that before, she’d implied it plenty of times but never outright said it. “Uh…” He patted her awkwardly on the top of her hat. “I uh… um…”

“It’s okay,” she said as she released him and stepped back. “You don’t have to say it. I know you do. You wouldn’t have made this for me if you hadn’t.”

Snatcher looked away. “Let’s uh… go show all the Subconites, huh? I’m sure they’ll love it.”

He brought them back to Subcon Village and moved back to let her run around and show everybody. It needed a good stress test anyway. So far it seemed he’d done a good job though.


	8. Play

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Prompt request: hatkid is upset about snatcher not wanting to play with her so the subconites,spiders and statues cheer her up with tickling and then snatcher joins in later"

“I don’t have any more contracts for you kid. You got your reward now _leave_ _me_ _be_.” Seems like Snatcher was still salty after she’d beat him at his best _despite_ the fact she’d provided him with a place to rest and recover afterwards, how rude.

“I know,” Hat Kid said. She was satisfied for now and _very_ pleased with the shadow puppet costume. “I was thinking we could play a game instead.”

He frowned at her. “ _Why_?”

“Just for fun. It can be any game you want to play too. You might have to teach me the rules but I don’t mind, I’m a fast learner.”

“No, go away.” He picked his book back up and lifted it in a way that made it clear he was blocking his line of sigh on her.

“Okay, maybe tomorrow then?”

He ignored her. Which wasn’t a ‘no’ per se. So…

She came back the next day and found him in one of his other reading spots. “Do you want to play now? I even brought a ball.” She held it up for him to see because it was the one with his face on it.

He scowled at it. “Real funny kid. Where did you get that?”

“The cruise ship.” She tossed it at him, hoping he’d at least whack it back. He didn’t, instead he let it hit the side of his face, making his scowl deepen to one of true anger. Whoops. “Sorry,” she said as she caught it on its bounce back.

“If you don’t leave within the next _five_ seconds, I’m going to destroy your _stupid_ ball.”

Hat Kid ran out of the hollow, clutching the ball to her chest. Rare was the day she came across a ball that bounced this good, she couldn’t let him destroy it.

Showing it to Snatcher maybe hadn’t even been a good idea though since he seemed to have been displeased by his likeness imprinted upon it. _Why_ though? Hat Kid would’ve loved to find a ball with her face on it. Whatever either way Snatcher clearly didn’t want to play today.

He didn’t want to play the next day either. Or the day after that _or_ the day after _that_. At which point Hat Kid decided to give up because he only got increasingly angry and annoyed when she asked. So let him be salty, she didn’t care. She didn’t need friends anyway. She did _just_ fine without them.

“You okay kid?”

She looked up to see one of the Subconites approaching the bench she was sitting on. “Uh… yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Why?”

“You look sad. Is it because the Boss is being a jerk?”

“Hmm… yeah. I keep asking him to play with me because I’ve done all his contracts now but he won’t. He’s a big meanie and he reads too much.”

“Oh, he gets like that sometimes, especially when it’s been a while since he’s had a chance to eat. Which is kind of the case here but most of it I think is that he spent a lot of magic on the Death Wish contracts and fighting you. So it’s probably going to be a while before he’s in a good mood again. Try not to take it too personally, okay?”

Hat Kid shrugged. Taking it personally or not didn’t change the fact that she was bored and wanted someone to play with. The directors were both busy, Mu was guest starring on Cooking Cat’s show, she couldn’t bear to play with the Walrus Captain or his seals after what she’d done to his ship, and Snatcher was being a salty grouch because he apparently needed to eat something. Which left her with nothing to do but go back to the search for the last few Time Pieces which she _wasn’t_ in the mood to do because as much as she wanted to go home she was also going to miss the friends she’d made here so she was delaying for a little bit. It’s why she’d wanted to play with Snatcher because she wasn’t sure how soon she’d get a chance to come visit again.

What about… “You,” she pointed at the Subconite. “Will you play with me?”

“Uh… me?” He glanced around as if hoping she was pointing at someone else. “I’m not really…”

“Of course you and you’re _perfect_.” He couldn’t escape her. “Let’s play.” She jumped up to her feet and grabbed his hand. It squeaked like a cartoon sound effect of a plush toy. She tightened her grip for a second, checking to see if… yep, it squeaked again. “Why does your hand make that sound when I squeeze it?”

“Uh… it just does.”

Well there was only one thing left to do now. She let go of his hand to poke his shoulder instead, getting another squeak. She then poked his chest, getting yet another squeak. Poking his middle got a laugh and a squeak.

“You’re ticklish?” she asked, unable to hold back a mischievous grin. “And squeaky?”

“No, I’m…” he cut off as she poked him again and then again. It wasn’t long before she had him doubled over on the ground giggling while she poked and tickled him, getting cute squeaks out of it as well. Honestly, because of what she knew about the Subconites’ past, it was nice to see one so happy for a change. She _would_ have to find out if they all squeaked though or if it was just this one.

***

When Snatcher teleported into Subcon Village to check on them – something he did fairly regularly mostly due to years upon years of it being a habit – he was greeted by chaos. Hat Kid was chasing a group of Subconites around while some other stood by and watched. Overall, almost _everyone_ was out of their homes, something that happened most often because something _bad_ was happening.

Snatcher swooped in and grabbed Hat Kid by the cloak. He lifted her up and to hold in front of his face. “Are you terrorizing my minions? Because if you are…”

“I’m not,” she said with a laugh, unintimidated as always. “I’m _playing_ with them you silly noodle. I’m trying to find the ones who squeaky and/or ticklish. So far, I’ve found three squeaky one and like ten ticklish ones.”

“Then… why are you chasing them?”

“It’s more fun that way.”

Snatcher glanced down at the Subconites. They hadn’t scattered like they would’ve if she was truly terrorizing them or causing some real problem. Instead they’d gathered closer to watch his interaction with her. Meaning they were safe. _Meaning_ he could get annoyed with her for calling him a ‘silly noodle’. But…

“Why did you make some of them squeaky though?” Hat Kid asked before he could bring it up.

Because some of them wanted and _asked_ to be made squeaky. “That’s none of your business.” And he might as well just drop it and let it go, he wasn’t in the mood for this. “But now, if you aren’t hurting them, then I _suppose_ I can allow you to continue whatever stupid game you’re playing.” He was tempted to drop her but didn’t and lowered her safely to the ground instead.

“You want to play with us?” She looked up at him again.

“Hmmm… maybe later.” He did want to stay and watch hidden in the shadows though because the Subconites didn’t play very often anymore. All of them coming out to do so was even rarer these days. It was nice seeing them happy for a change. So… maybe later he’d teach Hat Kid how to a play board or two and _maybe_ they could hold another game night here in the village. It had been a while since they’d had one.

“Okay. I’ll hold you to that.” Hat Kid gave him one last bright smile that contrasted with his not bright mood before running off after the Subconites again.


	9. Good Kitty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I finished Nyakuza Metro and thought of this request! In the middle of Empress stealing all of Hat Kids time pieces, she goes to Subcon to unwind because she's upset about the whole thing and Snatcher sees upset Hat Kid and is just: Excuse me Kid, I'm the only one around here who's allowed to make you upset what's going on? So she tells him and now Snatcher has to go meet this Empress and let her know that bullying Hat Kid is His job. (It's not that He CARES About her! Nooo!! That's Ridiculous!)"

Something was up. Hat Kid was in Subcon Forest but she _wasn’t_ bothering Snatcher or seemingly even looking for him so she could. Instead she was just meandering down the path, her head hung low, hands in her pockets and idly kicking a stick along. She looked upset about something. _What_ though? Well only one way to find out.

Snatcher teleported to pop up in front of her. “Boo!” he shouted loud enough to make her jump a little.

She gave him a disapproving look as he laughed at her fright as mild as it was. “Hello to you too Snatcher,” she said, her tone borderline annoyed. That wasn’t like her. Whatever was bothering had to be pretty serious.

“Hey kiddo,” he said grinning down at her. “What brings you to my forest?” He’d long since given up trying to tell her that their business was concluded, it only ever seemed to make her want to stick around more often and longer.

Hat Kid shrugged, kicking at the stick on the ground again. “It’s just a nice place to walk around and stuff.”

“Uh… ‘ _nice_ ’? It’s a haunted forest full of dead things. What part of that is _nice_?”

“The haunted part.” Now she did smile up at him, only a little though. “It’s also the only place I can walk around aimlessly where there aren’t a lot people.” Implying she probably wanted to be alone, giving Snatcher a perfect opportunity to just leave her to it but…

“And why would you want that?” He was curious. What could’ve possibly brought _her_ down. “Don’t you normally make a habit of annoying as many people as you possibly can?”

“Yeah but uh… I’m just really frustrated right now. And I _hate_ it.” She stomped a stick, breaking it in half with a snap. “The _stupid_ pecking Empress is sending her stupid pecking peck-neck goons to take my Time Pieces every time I find one in the Metro. And I can’t do anything about it because she’s got like I don’t even _know_ how many goons, certainly more than I can take on by myself. If it was _just_ her, I would beat the living shit out of her and make her regret ever crossing me. But I _can’t_ and it’s _not fair_.” Her eyes were filling with tears of frustration now.

Snatcher grimaced. “Whoa kid, calm down there. No need to start crying or any of that.”

“Sorry.” She sniffled. “I just… really hate it and don’t know what to do. But I have to do _something_ because I _need_ my Time Pieces.”

“Well… good luck with that.”

“You’re not even going to offer to help me?”

“Nope, the fact that you thought I might is honestly offensive. I don’t care about your stupid problems and I certainly didn’t ask you to spill them to me. So yeah, good luck with that kiddo.” With that he teleported away.

The Metro was bustling and busy with life. What little plant life there was, was all heavily manicured to match an aesthetic. Obnoxious neon lights were everywhere. And the place smelled _horrible_ ; a mix of trash, unwashed bodies, cats, trains, and the various food carts scattered about the place. Snatcher _hated_ it.

He was half tempted to pop out his Hat Kid disguise – complete with dweller mask to hide his ghostly features – and raze the whole place to the ground. But that would take too much time and effort to be worth it. Besides he wasn’t into expanding his territory, he just wanted to keep and protect what he had. Taking over more would both make that harder and be pointless. So, grateful the mask would also hide his sour expression so he didn’t have to control it, he started wondering around to listen to conversations.

The more he walked the more he hated both the Metro and the very sensation of walking, especially on concrete. How did people _stand_ this? It made him want to pull his hair out. He was _never_ coming back here once he’d finished his business. _Mercifully_ , the Empress was a pretty popular talking point amongst the cats wondering about the place and they all had a tendency to gossip just a bit too loud - possibly due to hearing loss from being around and in the trains making all that _horrible noise_ all the time – so it wasn’t too terribly long before Snatcher knew where and how to find the Empress. Which was all he needed.

Once back in the central area, finding the jewelry shop didn’t take long. Hanging around outside were what was obviously members of the Empress’ gang. Most likely there were more hidden around the place too. Not even Hat Kid could take on that many opponents. Snatcher could, he could take down everyone in this Metro if he really wanted to – as long as no one had a way to make him vulnerable anyway. But if things went according to plan though all he’d have to deal with was the Empress herself.

Inside, the Empress was standing at the counter. She looked up as Snatcher strode in. “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon,” she said, fooled by the disguise and mask. “But that’s fine. I just got word of another one of those hourglasses in Pink Paw Station. Go find it for me.”

“Hmm… I don’t think I will,” Snatcher said, using Hat Kid’s voice but changing it a little so that it would sound just _wrong_ enough to give most sane people chills. “Instead I think I’ll…” Grinning wide under the mask, he lifted a hand to snap his fingers.

The door slammed shut hard enough to rattle the whole store. Next, he made the lights flare bright before bursting, shattering glass everywhere. He timed their bursting with pulling the Empress into his pocket dimension, surrounding them both in a void of dark purple. And to top it all off, he teleported to float behind her and took off his mask. He kept the Hat Kid form though, he needed it.

When she inevitably turned to face him, already rattled she hissed and back pedaled, her fur puffing up the rest of the way. He’d morphed his face so he had bunch of misshapen eyes, covering the entire top half of his face. Only two of which actually worked, the rest were for show.

Still using Hat Kid’s voice and altering it to sound _wrong_ , he giggled. There were few things creepier than a little girl’s laugh especially when it wasn’t _quite_ right. To add a little bit _extra,_ he made it sound like it was coming from all around the Empress, making her glance around in fear.

“What are you?” she asked with an angry hiss as she turned her eyes back to glare at him. Her claws were out now too, they looked sharp.

“It doesn’t matter what I am, what matters is _you_.” He pointed at her. “You’ve been _awful_ mean to a friend of mine and I _don’t like that_.” It grated to call Hat Kid a friend but for this little act of his, he didn’t have much choice. “I’m sure you’re smart enough to know who I’m talking about.”

The Empress hissed and lunged to claw him. It did nothing though so Snatcher just giggled again.

“Oh, silly kitty, that won’t hurt me. There’s _nothing_ you can do that _can_ hurt me. I don’t think there’s even anything on this _planet_ that can.” Hat Kid was an alien so he was going to pretend to be one too. He needed to make sure no one _ever_ connected this whole thing back to him. “So save yourself the effort and don’t try. Just do as I say and maybe you’ll get out of this alive.”

The Empress still looked angry but her fear was evident in the way her fur was still puffed up on its end, her tail curled. “What do you want?” she forced out through clenched teeth.

“I want you to give my friend back her Time Pieces, don’t interfere with her collecting any more, _and_ once you’re done with that don’t ever talk to or have anything to do with her again.” To minimize the chances of her spilling the beans on this conversation. “I of course don’t expect you to do this just because I _told_ you to so how about a little motivation?” He teleported to hover behind her shoulder again.

Before she could fully turn around, he pulled out her soul to hold in the palm of his hand. She froze solid for half a second before clawing at him again, more with desperation than anger this time. He ignored it.

“If you’re a good kitty and do as your told, I’ll consider giving you your soul back. If not, I know a guy who likes to eat souls who I’m sure wouldn’t mind being gifted one.” As he spoke, he bounced her soul up and down in his hand as if playing with a ball. “So is that enough to convince you?” He would’ve preferred a proper contract but other than snatching souls, contracts were what he was most well known for. And Hat Kid would certainly know it was him if he used a contract. This way even if she did find out about this, there should be some doubt about who was responsible. Her _even_ suspecting it was him would be awful because then she’d think it was because he was her ‘BFF’ and that he cared for her or something when in truth it was because if he failed to make Hat Kid miserable no one else was allowed to either. That was _his_ job and he was going to find a way to do it properly one day no matter how much she wanted to insisted they were BFFs and she loved spending time with him.

The silence stretched as the Empress glared at him, defeated but not yet wanting to admit it. But finally… “ _Fine_ ,” she said. “I’ll give the brat back her hour glasses and then leave her alone.”

“You’ll order your goons to do so as well?” Snatcher wasn’t going to give her any loopholes. “As well as anyone else you might pay to deal with people you don’t like?”

She growled but… “ _Yes_.”

“Very good. Now, after my friend has all her Time Pieces back, including the ones not yet found, I shall give you your soul back. If you break your end of the deal, I will not hesitate to give you soul to a certain soul eating ghost.” Meaning he’d eat it. “If you try to break it _after_ you have your soul back, I will make your end a painful one _and_ feed you soul to the Snatcher just because I can. Deal?”

“Deal.” Oh, no hesitation this time either, the Empress was a brave one as well as smart.

“I will see you later then. Remember to be a good kitty for your own sake. Buh-bye.” Snatcher lifted a hand to wriggle his fingers in a wave before transporting himself elsewhere, leaving her back in her jewelry shop.


	10. Bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Prompt: Post-game, Hat Kid joins in the endless Subconite bone-prank-war mailing list. With, like, fish skulls and stuff."

There was a mail box in front of her ship now. It was made entirely of wood and had the words ‘HAT KID’ scrawled on either side of it. The Subconites must’ve put it up overnight because it hadn’t been here when she’d landed her ship yesterday. She’d have to thank them later even if she wasn’t sure it’d be used much because she doubted anyone would want to send her mail.

She was proven wrong a week later when she returned to her ship to find the mailbox had been jammed packed with mail. It wasn’t letters or boxes though but… bones. Femurs to be precise, six of them; three jammed into the mailbox, poking out and another three laid down beside it.

After a quick glance around to ascertain the mailperson wasn’t still in the area to question, she picked one up. There wasn’t a return address on it, just a bow and a tag reading ‘KID’S SHIP’. Clearly that was meant to be her address so… why had she been sent six bones in the mail? Was this some kind of threat or intimidation thing like she’s seen in a few movies? … No, couldn’t be, could it? Hmm… there was only one thing to do.

“Snatcher,” she called as she poked her head into his favourite reading hollow. Good, he was in there.

He lowered his book with a sigh to look at her. “Yeah?”

Readjusting her grip on the bones – all six – she strode inside. “Why did I have six bones sent to my mail box?”

Snatcher lifted a hand in an unsuccessful attempt to hide a smile. “Don’t worry about kid, just mail them to someone else and then it’s their problem.”

She frowned at him. “Is this a joke or something?” It was a very strange one if so, morbid too. Though morbid made sense considering everyone in the forest expect her was dead.

“Yeah, I guess it’s a joke. The Subconites send bones around the mail all the time. It’s just a thing they do, I don’t know why. I allow it because they’d complain if I tried to put a stop to it. The fact that you have six means that they like you, think of it as a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ type of thing.”

“Do they send you bones sometimes too?”

“It’s been going on for more than a hundred years now so yeah, I’ve gotten them mailed to me more than a few times. Honestly, it’s kind of annoying so feel free to trash them and end this whole dumb game if you want to. With how many you have, that’s probably most of them. As if he wasn’t participating in the whole thing too and enjoyed it.

“Hmm… I don’t think I will.” She lived here now because Snatcher was legally her father, so she wanted in on this hundred year plus game too. And she was for sure going to send Snatcher one. “How do I mail them to other people?” She already knew that Snatcher had been lying about source of the mail when he’d contracted her to deliver _way_ back then. It was actually from other Subconites and Snatcher himself. Meaning she should be able to send mail too.

Snatcher half sighed, half groaned as he got up from his chair. “I’ll show you, I guess.”

“How did the whole mailing bone things start?” she asked one the Subconites a few hours later while visiting the village.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone but the person who started it does, assuming they haven’t been destroyed in one of _her_ attacks or gotten tired of existing and moved on.”

“Wait, you guys can die again?”

“No, we can be destroyed or we can choose to let go and move on, you know, like people who don’t become ghosts do when they die.”

“What happens to them?”

“No one knows. I don’t want to find out anytime soon either.”

Hat Kid glanced around Subcon Village. She’d always kind of wondered why there were so few Subconites when supposedly an entire kingdom’s worth of people had been frozen. Even if only a third of them had become ghosts upon death, there should’ve been more Subconites and Dwellers. But there weren’t. Meaning some of them had been destroyed, presumably by Vanessa because who else could ‘ _her_ ’ said like that refer to, or decided to ‘move on’. And there was no way they could replenish their numbers either which meant theoretically one day, they could all move on or be destroyed and Snatcher would be alone in his forest. Thinking about that was too sad so…

“Uh… about the bone thing again,” she said. “Snatcher said you guys have been doing it for more than a hundred years now. Is it the same bones or do you guys get new bones sometimes?”

“The same bones but people add new bones sometimes. No one knows who though or when. So, no one really knows how many there in circulation expect for maybe the Boss. I don’t know how closely he keeps an eye on it.”

“Hmm… okay, thank you for telling me.”

The next time mail came around, Hat Kid got three bones. She mailed one to Snatcher and the other two to random addresses. She mailed one more thing too, to the Subconite who’d kindly informed her about the whole thing; a fish skull. She’d found it while visiting the island to hang out with Mu for a little bit. It had been on the beach and she’d had a thought and decided why not go for it and see what happened. Mu had spotted her picking it up and had given her a hard time, especially when she didn’t explain what she wanted it for. Thankfully she’d quickly dropped it though.

Maybe someone would know she’d sent a fish skull instead of femur and she’d get in trouble for it. Or maybe the Subconite who got it would toss it instead of sending it to another person. Or maybe he would send it and _that_ person would toss it. Maybe there was some reason they were only sending femurs around so her addition wasn’t a good one. It was worth a try though because why not?

Weeks went by and she didn’t see it again anywhere, in the mail or trash anywhere. At around the two month mark she was about ready to give up on it when upon opening her mailbox, she saw it. She grabbed it and pulled it out to get a better look.

Yep, it was the one she’d sent! It had presumably made its rounds through the mail just like the bones. Sweet! Her experiment had been a success. She was for sure going to add more things too just for the sake of it. Not yet though, she didn’t want anyone suspecting it was her adding non-femur bones to the bone pool. Or at least she didn’t want them to know _yet_ , eventually they’d probably figure it out because she had a hard time controlling her impulses sometimes and would undoubtedly end up adding too many things and thus call attention to herself. Until then though she was going to enjoy her secret even if it was kind of dumb.


	11. Fire Spirits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Prompt-thing: Fire Spirits to torment Vanessa."

The fire spirits were back. They _always_ came back. If Snatcher didn’t know better, he’d say it was because they liked annoying him. But no, it was because the forest was a place of high spiritual energy, it attracted them like moths to a flame.

He couldn’t make them go away either. They didn’t listen to him and their brand of magical energy was resistance to his, making destroying them take a lot of effort. With how powerful he was, he could force it if he really had to but it was a pain and exhausting so he preferred to make contractors deal with them instead. He maybe wouldn’t have to this time though because he officially had an adoptive daughter he might finally have a real use for.

“Hey kiddo,” he said with a grin as he popped in on her as she exited her ship now parked in his forest. “I’ve got a job for you.”

Hat Kid’s face let up. “What kind of job?”

“The fire spirits are starting to come back. I would like you to take care of them before they start making themselves too much of a nuisance. Think of it as your way of earning you keep around here, a house chore or whatever.”

“Okay! But… I’ve always wondered why _you_ don’t destroy them. I mean you’re like super powerful and stuff and they’re not so… can’t you deal with them? Are you just lazy?”

“No, I’m _not_ lazy.” The fact that she’d suggest such a thing was a bit offensive but he’d let it slid for now. “The reason I don’t deal with them myself is it takes a lot of energy to take them out. They’re beings made of fire, meaning _light_ basically. I’m a being made of primarily shadow energy. Not true opposites but throwing shadow magic at light beings doesn’t exactly have great results.”

“So… it’s like Pokémon? Your attacks aren’t very effective because it’s a poor type match up?”

“I don’t know what that means but… sure I guess, my attacks aren’t very effective against them. Hence why I prefer someone else to handle it so _I_ don’t have to. So hop to it.” He clapped his hands twice to spur her on.

She didn’t move though instead she seemed deep in thought about something. “They’re _fire_ spirits,” she mumbled to herself, “and going off Pokémon rules that would mean…” She trailed off as a mischievous smile spread across her face. An idea had occurred to her, that was almost never a good thing. “I have an idea,” she said, speaking to him again. “Instead of getting rid of them you should send them to torment your ex!”

Snatcher had been preparing to say ‘no’ but stopped. “Huh?”

“You should send them to torment your crazy ex,” Hat Kid repeated. “I mean they’re fire spirits with fire magic and your ex is an ice bitch with ice magic so they should be super effective against her. Don’t you want to mess with her? She’s a horrible _wretched_ evil peck neck. You should _burn her house down_! I bet it’ll be fun!” She her smile was now more evil that mischievous. Good.

Snatcher had never considered doing such a thing before. He’d always been so focused on not having anything more to do with her, only fending her off whenever she decided to invade his forest, that he’d never considered trying to do anything to mess with them. It was honestly a huge oversight on his part.

“You know what kid, I’m suddenly glad I adopted you, you’re smart,” he said. She beamed at his praise. “There is a problem with your idea though, they won’t listen to me. I’ve tried to tell them to go away or take down their _stupid_ fire barriers at least a hundred times over the years, if not more.” Probably more because the first time they’d appeared he’d still been trying to be at least sort of a good guy. They didn’t have souls he could eat – he’d tried but it had hurt him – and other than for the barriers – which weren’t intended to harm anyone and actually seemed to be just a byproduct of their rituals – they weren’t doing anything bad so he’d been reluctant to kill them. “I doubt they’d listen to you either because of how much time you spend with me and the Subconites, you reek of death and shadows.”

Her face fell. “Does that mean we can’t send them to torment Vanessa?”

“It means _we_ can’t but I know someone they should listen to and that someone will listen to me.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“The Conductor.”

“Why would they listen to…”

Snatcher didn’t let her finish before teleporting away.

***

The Conductor was just about to leave his dressing room when he suddenly had the sense that _something_ was behind him so he should probably turn and check. It was probably just paranoia but… It was Snatcher.

He couldn’t help jumping a little in fright and taking a step back. Not many people survived direct encounters with the infamous Snatcher. The Conductor was one of the lucky few but the thing he’d had to do to accomplish that feat had been abhorrent. So he wasn’t a fan of the ghost and was honestly terrified.

“What the peck do _you_ want?” he said because no way was he going to let his terror show.

Snatcher grinned wide. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“I ain’t trying to kill the lass again, no matter what you say. You can eat my pecking soul, I don’t care.” He shouldn’t have cared the first time but… he’d been taken by surprise and terrified.

“Well good thing I wasn’t going to ask you to. Now, I _would_ take your soul but alas I have a feeling a certain child now legally in my care would be rather displeased with me if I did. It’s annoying when she cries so I’d rather not deal with that.”

The Conductor had almost forgotten Snatcher had adopted Hat Kid because honestly, he didn’t want it to be true. Snatcher was well _the Snatcher_ , he ate people’s souls, he’d tried to murder Hat Kid, had forced the Conductor and others to try as well. And yet Hat Kid _insisted_ he was a good guy deep down inside and that he cared about her. She’d even shown the Conductor and DJ Grooves a copy of the adoption papers Snatcher had written up to adopt her. He _had_ signed it though so Hat Kid’s claims had to have some truth to them even if the Conductor disagreed with the whole adoption. He’d no choice but to accept it and try not to think about it too much because he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Now,” Snatcher continued, “because of our history I know you probably don’t want to help me. And honestly, I don’t blame you, from your perspective things were pretty bad. But we’re past that now, right? So I need you to…”

“‘ _Pretty_ _bad’_? That wasn’t ‘pretty bad’, that was pecking…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Snatcher cut in, making a placating gesture with one had that made the Conductor’s blood boil with rage he couldn’t do anything with because he was facing _Snatcher_. “You’re an angry fire lizard, I understand. I’ll have you know though, the favor I’m asking you to do was Hat Kid’s idea. She’s actually really smart sometimes, would you believe it?”

“She’s smart all the time you _peck-neck_.”

“If you say so. Now, I need you to talk to the fire spirits in my forest and tell them to harass the Ice Queen Vanessa instead of me. They should listen to you because I’m pretty sure dragons are on the top rank of the fire beings, right? Even the small feathered ones like yourself.”

“What the peck are you talking about? I’m not a dragon.”

“Oh, you’re not? I’m pretty sure you are. I could be wrong though I guess because all I know for sure is you have fire magic. There are a number of ways that’s possible, none of them make a difference for what I’m asking you to do though so it doesn’t matter. Let’s go.” He snapped his fingers and the world around them shifted to deep purple.

“Peck you, you pecking peck neck,” the Conductor said instead of being afraid like he’d wanted to be because whatever the peck was going on here was _not_ okay.

The purple faded and suddenly they were in the forest next to Hat Kid and her ship, now parked. “Uncle Con,” she said with a smile.

“Uh… hey lass,” he said, glancing around. The forest was dark and creepy, he did _not_ like it especially since Snatcher was looming over them now that he had all the room in the world to do so. He was a dumb showoff, why couldn’t he stay a normal person size? He just liked being bigger and taking up more room than everyone else because he was bully and a peck-neck. Before the Conductor could say something about it though…

“Now go talk to the fire spirits for us,” Snatcher said. “It’s important, right kiddo?”

“Yes! I don’t know why they’d listen to you Uncle Con but if they do, go tell them to _burn down Vanessa’s Manor_!” The evil glee in Hat Kid’s eyes and voice was _concerning_. But was it because she was spending too much time with Snatcher or just how she naturally was and that’s what had drawn her to Snatcher in the first place?

“Why?” the Conductor asked to avoid dealing with that question.

“Because she’s horrible and awful and evil and just the pecking _worst_.”

Well if Hat Kid hated this Vanessa person so much she _must_ be truly terrible, worse than Snatcher because Hat Kid didn’t hate him. And come to think of it, hadn’t the Conductor heard tales about an Ice Queen Vanessa? She’d frozen her entire kingdom, killing everyone in it, or something like that, right? So yeah, she probably deserved to have her house burnt down _at least_.

“Fine.” The Conductor sighed. “I’ll talk to them.” And they _probably_ would do as he asked because in his experience, fire spirits tended to more often than not. He’d always assumed it was because he was half fire spirit but maybe it was something else like Snatcher had suggested? … Nah, no way. And he didn’t care anyway. He just wanted done with this business as soon as possible so he could leave the damn forest.


	12. Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Headcanon (and maybe prompt if you want): ever since Snatcher became what’s basically a noodle-shaped blob of shadows, magic, and bitterness any logic as to how his voice works has basically gone out the window. This means he can imitate noises that need two sets of vocal chords pretty well, like growling, purring, or, say, the noises needed to speak HK’s language. He’s happy to learn b/c coming from him it sounds utterly demonic and terrifying, and she’s happy to teach b/c Yay BFF bonding time!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is a followup to my Ice Queen fic. You don’t need to read that fic to be able to appreciate this drabble but this drabble spoils the ending of that fic, so just heads up on that. I did it like this because I guess I like having things be connected for whatever reason but also because I wanted it to start with Snatcher learning Hat Kid’s real name. (It makes sense to me that that’d be the first word he learns to say because it’s the first word he’d hear her say.) And then after a couple false starts that were turning into basically a rewrite of a scene in Ghost Kid, I had the thought to do this instead. I really liked the mental image of the two of them chilling in the pillow pool, bonding via language sharing after what they went through in The Ice Queen so I decided to go with it. Oh and also, I represented Hat Kid’s unpronounceable name with ‘@@@’ because I needed to represent it with something because no way was I gonna try to spell something that couldn’t be pronounced.

When hat Kid returned to the ship and her room, Snatcher was still resting in the pillow pool. He still looked tired but now it was in a more relaxed kind of way. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was on the verge of falling asleep. She’d have left him to it if that was the case but it wasn’t so…

She skipped over and joined him. She sat next to him, leaning back against the side and hugging a pillow to her chest.

“Hey kiddo,” he said, turning his head to look at her. “How it’s going?”

“Pretty good.” Now that she was back where it was warm again anyway. The forest hadn’t been nearly as cold as the manor but after everything that happened in the manor and how long they’d been forced to stay, she wanted a break from the cold for a while. “I told the Subconites not to worry anymore because you’re safe and Vanessa’s taken care of. And they should all know because the ones I told said they’d tell everyone else. So, it’s all good, just got to wait for the snow and stuff to melt now.”

“Eh… thanks, I guess.”

“You’re welcome.” She gave him a warm smile. “But uh… I know _your_ name now or… I guess what your name was when you were alive. I don’t know if you still think of it as your name or not.”

“I do… sort of. ‘Snatcher’s more a title. But _don’t_ take that as an excuse to start calling me ‘Lukas’, _especially_ if anyone else is around.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t, I promise.” And that was one promise Hat Kid was going to keep. Names could be sensitive sometimes, calling someone a name that no longer fit and they no longer wanted to be called by was rude. “I’ll just call you ‘Mr. Noodle’ instead because you’re a like a noodle.”

He scowled at her. “If you call me that even _one_ time, I’ll… well right now I can’t do much more than slap you but I’ll slap you real hard. Don’t think you saving me means I won’t.”

Hat Kid bit back on a giggle so she could reply. “Don’t worry, I was joking… or _was_ I?” She had been but now she _would_ call him Mr. Noodle, _way_ down the line when he’d hopefully forgotten about the possibility. “But um… anyway, the reason I brought it up in the first place was now that I know your real name it’s only fair that you know mine, right?”

“Wait, are you really going to…

“It’s @@@.”

He stared blankly at her for a few seconds so she repeated it.

“I know you can’t say it because I’m pretty sure the intelligent lifeforms on this planet don’t have the right kind of…”

“@@@,” he interrupted, saying it in perfect mimicry of her voice. He then repeated it in his own voice, not quite perfectly but pretty close. The way his voice echoed made it sound very strange and almost demonic. He then repeated it a few times until he was saying it right. “That right, kiddo?”

“Yep, perfect. I didn’t think you’d be able to say it because you need two sets of vocal cords to say it properly. One of which is very different from the one I’m using to speak _this_ language.” She was used to it now but speaking languages that only required one set had been very weird and uncomfortable at first.

“Kid, I’m a ghost, I don’t _have_ vocal cords anymore so with a little focus and willpower I can make any sound I please.”

That actually made total sense. How Hat Kid hadn’t thought of that before was beyond her especially since she’d heard him near perfectly mimic other people’s voices a few times. Though it probably had something to do with the fact that she’d never once met a being on any planet that was even capable of making the sounds her language required, meaning it hadn’t really been on her radar. It was honestly quite exciting so…

“That means you can learn to speak my language. Since you can make the sounds and stuff.”

“Uh… yeah, I guess I could if I wanted to.”

“Do you want to?” She tried to downplay the excitement she had at such a thought but she’d never been very good at that. “And uh… your voice sounded really cool and kind of scary when you said my name.” Got to try to give him some motivation, right? “And it’s not like you have anything _better_ to do while you recover from the whole thing with your crazy ex and the double rainbow potion thing before that. And also, that would mean that we could…”

“@@@,” he interrupted with a grin. “I get it, you want to teach me your language. And well, sure I’m down to learn. I could use it to intimidate people by pretending it’s a demonic language or something. And uh… you’re right, I really don’t have anything better to do for a while.”

“Yay!” Hat Kid jumped up to hug him. “It’s going to be so much fun.”

“Yeah, yeah, if you say so,” he grumbled but he let her hug him and even patted her on the back a little in a sort of return hug.


	13. Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Prompt: One of the subconites winds up putting the pieces together about Snatcher’s previous life (accurately or not)"

It had started when Isaac had accidentally overheard Hat Kid and Snatcher talking about Vanessa. Hat Kid had referred to her as ‘your crazy ex’ and Snatcher hadn’t contradicted her or acted as if Hat Kid had said anything strange at all. Isaac had run away then, the Boss’ secrets weren’t any of his business.

He’d managed not to think about it for a while. But he’d always been curious. His curiosity probably would’ve been the thing that got him killed if Queen Vanessa hadn’t done so first. He’d looked into it some more, gone over other things he’d heard mentioned over the years. And now he was pretty sure he knew something he wasn’t supposed to know and it was _awful_.

Snatcher was Prince Lukas. The same Prince Lukas who Queen Vanessa had reportedly chained in her basement to keep him away while she froze the entire kingdom so it’d just be the two of them. … Maybe. Isaac couldn’t know unless he confirmed it. Which he _shouldn’t_ do because it was none of his business. Snatcher was the Boss, he took care of the forest and all the Subconites, protecting them from Queen Vanessa and every other danger. And he’d made them all bodies and maintained them. The only thing he asked for in return was that they work of him and follow his orders, basically just view him as their ruler. … Their king, if one wanted to call it that, which is what princes became when they sat on the throne – metaphorical or not – at last. It’d be rude and awful and uncalled for to bring up his past, especially if _that_ was the truth. … But Isaac _had_ to know. Not knowing for sure was eating away at him.

Through the same bit of magic sewn into their cloaks that allowed them to teleport small objects to Snatcher, all the Subconites could also always sense him as long as he was relatively nearby, making finding him easy. He was at favourite reading hollow. When Isaac arrived he was chatting with Hat Kid. A perfect excuse to back down and leave but… instead Isaac sat outside and waited.

It took a while but Hat Kid did finally leave. Isaac jumped up to his feet and walked around to poke his head in. Snatcher looked only mildly annoyed after his conversation with her so…

“Hey Boss,” he said as he stepped in.

“Hello,” Snatcher replied. “What do you need?” Whenever they needed something, he always granted it. He was a good ruler like that, the best Subcon ever had. Bringing up his past and death wouldn’t be fair. But Isaac couldn’t back down now.

“Um… it’s not something I need really, just a question.” Isaac paused in case Snatcher wanted to object to answering a question but he didn’t so… “A few weeks ago, I kind of accidentally overheard part of a conversation you had with Hat Kid. I didn’t mean to, it just kind of happened and I apologize for it. But she said something that was odd and got me thinking about things that I felt compelled to look into. I think I might’ve reached a conclusion about something. I could be wrong of course and that’s what I’m here to find out so uh… Are you Prince Lukas?”

Snatcher flinched. It was small but it gave him away so did his grimace. Was he going to try to lie about it though? … “Yes,” he said after a short pause, sounding like he was forcing it out. He was being truthful though, that was a surprise. “How many of the others have you told your suspicions to?”

“No one.”

Snatcher let an audible sigh of relief as he visibly relaxed. “ _Don’t_ tell anyone ever.”

“I won’t.” Isaac wouldn’t dare do such a thing even if henceforth it wouldn’t be considered a breach of his contract. “But… I’m sorry about what _she_ did to you.” All the Subconites had always assumed that Snatcher had come in from somewhere else. That everything he’d done for them was a mix of his sorrow for their plight and taking advantage of an opportunity to finally have a place and people to rule over. That’s what Snatcher had _led_ them to believe because… why? Why didn’t he want them knowing? He’d suffered worse than they had because of Vanessa. Why didn’t he want them knowing that? “I can’t even imagine…”

“Hush,” Snatcher interrupted. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Uh… okay.”

“You are dismissed.”

Isaac nodded and left the hollow. Well he knew for sure now and just he like he suspected, bringing it up had upset Snatcher. Not what he’d wanted to have happen but too late to take it back now. If only he had never found out in the first, never even overheard anything that made him want to look into it either. Things would’ve been easier without this knowledge.


	14. The Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Got any more dad snatcher drabbles? Like what if Hat Kid was in danger with the empress(in the mansion) and Snatcher had to save her?"

“Yo Dad, I’m going to go up to the manor again, you want me to bring back anything?”

Snatcher snapped around from resetting a trap to face Hat Kid. “ _Where_ did you just say you’re going?”

“To the manor.” Hat Kid pointed in the general direction of Vanessa’s Manor. “I want to read the rest of the Queen’s diary because I only read a couple pages when I was up there last. It wasn’t exactly on my list of priorities at the time because that was before I knew who she was. But since I’m going down there, is there anything you want me to bring back? I know you used to live with her. So you must have belongings there, right? Want any of them back?”

“And if I were to forbid you from going?” It was dangerous and she didn’t need to know any more about Vanessa than she already did.

“I would go anyway, you know that. But you _also_ know I went once before and it was fine a _nd_ that I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself in general especially after completing all your Death Wishes. I’m smarter and faster than your crazy ex, she won’t even know I’m there. So, spare us both the trouble and yourself the embarrassment and don’t even bother trying to make me not go. Now, you want any of your old possessions back or no?”

When she put her mind to something, there wasn’t much he could do to stop her even if he _was_ her legal guardian now. But she _was_ right, she’d been up there before and come out unscathed. And she’d proven herself more than capable of taking care of herself during the Death Wishes even if she hadn’t already beforehand. And well maybe there as something Snatcher wouldn’t mind having from his old life. He’d given up on it a long time ago and he didn’t need it but if she was going anyway…

“There’s a lose floorboard at the foot of the bed in my old room.” It’s where he’d kept his most valuable possessions so Vanessa wouldn’t be tempted to take them. How could he have possibly been dumb enough to ignore that big a red flag? “Most of what’s in there is probably ruined by now but one thing that might still be in good shape is a gold pocket watch. I don’t need it but you could bring it back if you really want to.”

“You don’t seem the type to carry around pocket watch. Where would you even keep it? You don’t have pockets.”

“I don’t plan to carry it. It uh… used to belong to a friend of mine.” The only friend he’d had after Vanessa had driven everyone else away.

“Oh?” Hat Kid’s eyes lit up with interest that almost made him regret saying anything. “The _romantic_ kind of friend.”

“No.” Just the thought made him feel ill after the _wrong_ assumptions Vanessa had made about their relationship. “She gave it to me to fix because it broke.” He’d been pretty decent at that kind of thing back in the day. He’d been planning to finish repairing it _that_ night. “Don’t ask anymore questions, either get it or don’t, I don’t care that much. If you can’t find it fast, just forget it.” He could never return it regardless because not everyone became a ghost when they died and she wasn’t one of them, he’d made sure of it. “I expect to see you back at the big hollow in an hour, got it?”

“Got it! I promise I won’t be any more than two hours. I’ll try for one though. See you then.” She gave him a wave before running off towards the manor.

Snatcher sighed as he went back to resetting his trap. This whole being a dad thing was hard. He probably should’ve at least tried to stop her from going. Oh well, too late now and knowing her, there was unlikely to be a problem anyway.

Three hours later Snatcher paced by the big hollow. Hat Kid _should_ be back by now. Even if she was a feral alien child, she still somehow almost always managed to be good with time; when she said it’d take her X amount to time to be somewhere, that’s how long it took her to arrive.

With a growl, Snatcher teleported as close to the manor as he dared: in front of the broken bridge. Any closer and he’d risk Vanessa sensing his power and coming after him.

“Did Hat Kid come through here?” he asked the Subconite on watch duty.

“Yes, a few hours ago. She hasn’t come back yet though. I figured it was just because she ported back to her ship. But are you saying, she hasn’t returned?”

“Yep, so I need to go look for her now.” If this was a prank or she was safe for some other reason, he was going to be _pissed_. He would ground her for a _year_ at least, probably longer.

“I hope she’s okay.”

“I’m sure she is,” Snatcher said for his own benefit as well as the Subconite’s as he moved over the bridge.

He made his way through the snow and ice, hating every second of the cold even if he barely felt it. Once he started nearing the frozen lake, he condensed his form down to disguise himself as a Subconite – he remained floating though because no way was he going to deal with walking, especially in snow – he didn’t want to cause a scene if he didn’t have to. He just wanted in to grab Hat Kid and then get the peck out as soon as possible and hopefully not even see Vanessa.

He hadn’t been anywhere even near the manor since becoming a ghost. As he approached, he couldn’t help the slight tremble that came to his hands. He didn’t let himself hesitate as he floated up towards the front door though. It was locked of course but nothing a ghost couldn’t handle. He slid through the crack in it and into the house.

Inside, it was colder and he _hated_ it. It was also a mess, in need of a good dusting and sweeping. Vanessa had always been pretty tidy back when he knew her, forcing him to be too. Her standards in that area apparently had dramatically slipped. If only she’d been…

“ _Peck_ you _bitch_ , let me _go_!” That was Hat Kid! She was somewhere upstairs and was clearly in trouble and making it worse by being an ornery _brat_.

Snatcher burst into action and dashed for the room that housed the stairs. Upon reaching the second floor, he paused. The door leading to the nursery was wide open. He could sense Vanessa in there. It _had_ to be a trap. Vanessa was insane but she wasn’t stupid, she’d know Snatcher would come for Hat Kid. It was the only reason Hat Kid was still alive.

Hating every moment that had led to this, Snatcher crept closer, grateful he didn’t have to worry about creaking floorboards. He didn’t want to do this but what else could he _do_? He needed to save Hat Kid.

Once he reached the doorway, he peeked in. Hat Kid was in there, in the middle of the room, completely frozen except for her head. Her face where it wasn’t bruised and bleeding – clearly she’d been hit rather hard by something – was pale. Her eyes were closed too. She was still alive though, Snatcher could feel it, just unconscious probably in punishment for her scream a little bit ago.

All he needed to do was to get close enough to her to be able to pull her into his pocket dimension and then they’d be home free. So he should rush in and…

“My Prince!” Vanessa was suddenly taking up the whole doorway, making Snatcher flinch back. “You’ve _finally_ returned! I’ve been waiting, I even captured…”

Snatcher summoned a blast of magic under her feet, making her cut off with a scream of rage as it hit her. He immediately moved to dodge her ice thrown in retaliation. At the same time, he summoned _another_ blast of magic under her feet and another under the wall separating the nursery from the hallway. It destroyed the wall enough for his Subconite form to fit through. Allowing him to get around her and make a dash for Hat Kid.

“Go peck yourself you pecking selfish whore ice bitch,” he made sure to shout at her before pulling himself and Hat Kid into his pocket dimension, just in time to miss getting hit by another blast of ice.

Wasting no time, Snatcher snapped back into his usual form and loosely coiled around Hat Kid. “Kiddo,” he said as he urgently starting tapping the side of her face. “You need to wake up.” She was more than half frozen, the risk of freezing to death was way too real. He could worry about other possible injuries and getting rid of the ice in a bit, waking her up came first. … Unless it was already too late.

She grumbled as her eyes fluttered open, thank _goodness_. “Snatcher! Dad! You saved me!”

“Yep, sure did. Now uh…” He could easily break the ice with a strong blast of magic but with how much power he, he was liable to accidently hurt her in the process no matter how careful he was with it. But it was _magic_ ice, meaning melting it through mundane means would take at least twice as normal ice. Meaning…

“I-it’s cold.” Her voice shook. “A-and I can’t move.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m working on it though just… hold on a bit more, okay?” He summoned a blue potion as he pulled back from her. He didn’t have time to explain so he just poured half of it out and threw it at her feet. She flinched and even gasped in surprise at the explosion but when the fog cleared, the ice encasing her body was cracked.

“O-one more should do it,” she said, looking back up at him with far too much trust because this was dangerous too but he couldn’t think of what else to do to get rid of the ice _now_.

Thankfully one more did do it. As the ice shattered, Hat Kid stumbled and almost fell before Snatcher caught her. He scooped her up to cradle in his arms. She was shivering and cold as she grasped onto his mane.

“Y-you’re warm,” she said, her teeth chattering. “You’re not supposed be warm.”

“I’m not, it just feels that way to you right now because you’re _freezing_. But other than that, are you hurt? Do you need medical attention?” He couldn’t provide it but he could bring her to someone who could. He maybe should regardless, just in case.

“Uh no, I’m not now… just cold and my head hurts because she hit me when I yelled. But uh… speaking of that, what happened?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Instead, Snatcher transferred them to her room on her ship. He pulled the blanket off her bed and wrapped her in it like a cocoon. He then grabbed the spare blanket from her closet and wrapped her in that one too. “Is this good?” he asked when he done because he’d been dead long enough that he was no longer sure what the best way to warm up after almost freezing to death was.

“Yes, thank you. Thank you.” Her shivers seemed to have died down some, meaning she was probably going to be okay now. He might still want to take her to the doctor later though, just in case, but for now…

“ _Don’t_ ever do that again,” he said as he settled in the pillow pool, still holding her in his arms so he could glare down at her to make sure his displeasure was fully known.

She giggled in response though. It was good that she was feeling well enough to laugh but…

“It’s not funny. You could’ve died.”

“No, I guess it’s not, huh? But… I’m just happy you’re being a grump again. It was kid of scary seeing you so openly worried.”

Snatcher couldn’t exactly deny that he’d been worried, even if he wanted right? He’d gone into _Vanessa’s_ _Manor_ for her, anyone who knew of his past would know what that meant. So… “You’re never going to the manor again. I don’t care what you have to say about it.” He’d tell the Subconites never to let her pass when they were on guard duty too.

“Fair enough. I got what I wanted anyway. Her diary and…” she paused as she squirmed and then finagled her hand and arm out of the covers through the opening made for her face, “ _this_.” She held the pocket watch he’d asked her to find. It was tarnished with age but unmistakable.

Snatcher sighed, unable to stay mad. “Uh… thanks.” He should probably take Vanessa’s diary from her because she did _not_ need to know Vanessa’s secrets. He’d worry about it later though. For now, he just accepted the pocket watch and sent it to his pocket dimension.

“Can we watch a movie now? One that’s set in a warm place.”

“Sure, why not?” With how mad Vanessa had to be, she’d probably come to attack the forest again soon but until that happened Snatcher was just going to let himself relax. He’d almost lost Hat Kid today and that was a far more stressful experience than he wanted to admit. So he _needed_ to get his mind off of it for a bit.


	15. Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itshauntedtoon: "Firstly I absolutely love your writing. It's really detailed and creative! Secondly I have a suggestion, but you don't have to do it if you rather not too. What if one of Hat Kid's family members show up to take her back after Snatcher adopted her? I think her family wouldn't have been the best if a child about 7-9(I headcannon her around that age) is going around in space alone with time pieces."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a direct prequel to the Haunted drabble.

Hunting for traitors normally fell to someone else but this one was personal. This traitor was the Headmaster’s own granddaughter, left to him when his failure of a son had died. It was a _shame_ she’d turned out even worse than him despite her initial promise; she’d risen through the school’s ranks, reaching the final test in record time – only one other student even came close to comparing. But then she’d failed the test and upon learning that had turned traitor and ran away.

It had taken the Headmaster’s men far too long to finally locate her. She was on a tiny out of the way planet with no access to space travel. It was the perfect place to hide; if it wasn’t for the beacon hidden on her ship, revealing its location to a scout ship entering the system, she probably never would’ve been found.

Now was the Headmaster really about to descend upon the planet to capture his granddaughter and bring her home to be executed as a traitor? If his wife were still alive, she’d insist on it. She wasn’t though so he _might_ take pity and spare the child because of the promise she’d shown before but only if she came back with him without much of a fight.

“Sir,” the man he’d sent to scout the situation on the planet said upon stepping into the command room to report. “Apparently the child has been adopted by a powerful being known as the Snatcher. As you ordered, I did not get close enough to be seen by her and thus I could not determine much about this Snatcher person. Only that he is very powerful and lives in a haunted forest, presumably the same forest the stolen ship is parked in. What are you orders?”

“We wait until the child is alone in the ship, beam to it and deal with her however best we can and then leave.” They were on a mission hunting a child and thus they hadn’t brought much fire or man power. They still might be able to deal with the Snatcher though, depending on just how powerful he was, but it was best not to risk it if they didn’t have to. They were here solely for the kid after all, they could send someone back for the ship later after she’d been secured or dealt with if needed.

***

Hat Kid checked her mailbox upon returning to her ship. It was empty, meaning Snatcher’s newest contractor hadn’t yet been given the mail delivery task – normally she or a Subconite did it but whenever a contractor was around Snatcher made them do it instead. It should come tomorrow though which was exciting because this time around she’d added a whole human ribcage to the bone mailing game. The Subconite she’d sent it to better appreciate it because she’d worked hard to find it.

She skipped merrily up the ramp and into the ship, using the door in the window. Rumbi rolled over as if to greet her but really it just wanted to vacuum up the little bit of dirt she’d tracked in from outside. She smiled and gave it a little pet anyway because it had been her only companion for a long time before finding this planet.

Now off to the kitchen she went in the search for food. She was at the base of the ladder when she heard the distinctive sound of someone beaming in behind her. No one on this planet but her should be able to do that unless they’d stolen her phone. There was also no ‘Intruder Alert’ over the intercoms, meaning the ship’s sensors _recognized_ whoever it was.

As she snapped around, she pulled out her umbrella. Despite her suspicions her heart still sunk at the sight of the Headmaster and five of his men standing in the middle of the room. _How_ had they found her? And why had the Headmaster himself come? Wasn’t he too important to hunt down a traitor, especially a child? She wasn’t that dangerous, was she?

“I recommended putting down your weapon,” the Headmaster said with that same air of superiority he always used that she hated so much. “It won’t do you any good. Come with us peacefully and I might be willing to forgive you traitorous actions.”

If given this option a couple years ago, shortly after she’d first run away, she probably would’ve taken it. She’d never wanted to become a traitor or run away from what had been her home for all her life. But she’d since found a home here and honestly, she liked it more than her old home. People actually liked and cared for her here, she had a _family_ now – a very odd one sure but who cares? – and friends. She didn’t want to leave them.

“No, I don’t think I will,” she said, putting on her own haughty attitude to counteract his. “I’m not going anywhere with you so how about you just leave and never come back?”

She frowned at her, making his already ugly wrinkled face uglier. “Well, we gave you a chance. I guess we’ll just have to take you by force.” He gestured and his lackies all started reaching to pull something out of their cloaks.

Hat Kid didn’t wait to see what it was before switching to the time stop hat. Activating it, she dashed at them and whacked the Headmaster’s shin hard enough that he should lose his balance. She didn’t wait to find out for sure though as she continued past them and back outside through the door.

Time resumed its normal flow as she reached the bottom of the ramp. She kept running. They undoubtedly had better weapons than her so she didn’t stand a chance against them by herself. But Snatcher _should_ be here soon so…

A loud bang filled the air. Suddenly she was falling to the forest floor with a pain worse than any she’d ever felt before piercing through her body. She tried to push herself back up but for some reason all the strength was gone from her limbs. Oh _gosh_ it hurt _so much_. How was it even possible to be in this much pain and still be conscious? Well… that at least wouldn’t last for long, darkness was already taking her.

***

There were suddenly more living things in the forest. They’d just appeared there, much like how Hat Kid did when porting back to her ship. It was even about the same spot as her ship. Snatcher would go investigate after he was done dealing with this contractor.

It was a Mafia goon, the most common type of person to wonder into the forest due to their lack of intelligence. But they were good for manual labor projects like unclogging the damn well for the umpteenth time, and repairing parts of the swamp walkway, it was getting _too_ dilapidated lately. And running mail too of course just because it was there and needed to be done so why not?

“There, that ought to do for now,” he said with a grin as he snapped his figures, magicking the freshly signed contract away.

The Mafia goon said something in response but Snatcher suddenly wasn’t paying attention because over by her ship, Hat Kid was using one her hats. He was familiar enough with their magic energy signatures by now to know it was the time stop hat. Not one she used often and typically only when in combat or dodging it.

She was _probably_ fine. She was more than capable of taking care of herself but…

“I have something I need to attend to,” he said, looking back at the Mafia goon. “Talk to my minions about directions to the swamp and where materials for the walkway are.”

He didn’t wait for a response before teleporting over. As always, he placed himself a distance away from whatever was happening and hidden so he could get a read on the exact situation before jumping in. And he didn’t want to interfere if he wasn’t needed.

Hat Kid was running away from her ship as a man wearing a uniform of some sort poked himself out the front door of the ship with something in his hand pointed at her. There was a loud bang and suddenly Hat Kid stumbled and fell onto her front. She put a hand under herself as if to try to push herself back but _didn’t_. In fact, after that she didn’t move _at all_. She went limp, as her blood pooled beneath her, soaking into the ground. Her life faded fast, far quicker than Snatcher could even _try_ to do anything about.

She was dead. He’d just watched her die. How… how as that even _possible_? She _couldn’t_ die, she was… she was _Hat Kid_ , seemingly _nothing_ could kill her, not even Snatcher himself had been able to do it. And… she was _his_ , he didn’t let things that belonged to him die or be destroyed, _ever_. So… there was no way it was real because it just _couldn’t be_.

“You _shot_ her,” an angry voice cut into his shock. A group of men were exiting the ship. The one speaking was an old man and clearly the leader of the group. “I told you we were taking her _alive_ you fools.”

“Sorry sir, I acted on instinct.”

“And we were going to execute her anyway so it doesn’t…”

With a snarl, Snatcher summoned a burst of power under their feet. It pushed them back _away_ from Hat Kid’s body as it hit, making them scream in pain and surprise. He immediately summoned another and another and another as he got closer. Taken completely by surprise, they didn’t stand a chance and all of them were dead after the third blast. He didn’t even bother snatching their souls as they departed. Instead he kept summoning blast after blast after blast until he had a little crater filled with magic fire born purely from the energy of his magic. But even _that_ wasn’t enough, he was going to…

The sound of a child gasping in shocked fear came from behind him. He snapped around to see the horrid sight of Hat Kid’s lifeless body again but that wasn’t all. A small ghost hovered a few feet above it: Hat Kid. Her form even still had the hat and cloak. She was staring at her body, hands pressed to either side of her face in utter horror. The silence held for a couple seconds before she let out a sob of despair.

Snatcher jerked back into motion, swooping in front of her both so she could see him and so she could no longer see her corpse. “Hey kiddo,” he said with a pathetic attempt at a smile. “It’s okay… or uh well it’s _not_ okay but…” He _really_ didn’t know how to handle tears or what to do to console someone who’d just died. It was an _awful_ experience and he’d certainly hadn’t had anyone nearby when he’d died willing to offer to comfort so he didn’t have anything to even try to imitate. So he was at a complete loss. But… “You’re a ghost, that’s… not good but… it means you’re still here so…”

“Dad.” She hugged him, wrapping her arms as far around his neck as she could and burying her face in his mane as she continued crying.

He sighed, giving up on cheering her up as he lifted a hand to pat her back. Being a ghost meant she was still here and for that he was grateful… was that selfish though? Didn’t matter because they were here now, he couldn’t change anything.

He teleported to his private reading hollow, bringing her with him. He settled in the chair with another sigh. He didn’t know what to do or say so he’d just let her cry on him and hope this was enough to console her at least a little bit.


	16. Shapeshifting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Although powerful, The Snatcher still cannot use his powers forever. Unfortunately for him, his contractually obligated BFF wants to know the extent of his shapeshifting. Hopefully he doesn’t get stuck.

According to Snatcher’s innate sense of time as well as his pocket watch, it as officially midnight now. Meaning everyone else on the ship except for the night crew should be asleep now so it was safe for him to come out.

He slid out through the cracks in the box, landing in him in the cargo bay. The doors out were locked of course but that was no problem for him. On the other side, he shifted his form to disguise himself as an owl. He’d have preferred to disguise as one of the crew but while he could mimic the seals’ shape, he was still a ghost and thus could only turn himself various shades of purple. So he had to make do with an owl shape and large coat with hood to cover himself.

The moon was full and bright when he finally made his way to the top deck and out into fresh air. The stars were pretty too of course. It had been a _long_ time since he’d been away from the forest and seen the night sky like this… he should really try to do that more. Though it probably wasn’t smart; if Vanessa decided to attack while he was away… She probably wouldn’t, her attacks were few and far between and her most recent attempt was only a couple years ago. So it was probably fine and thus he could enjoy himself.

Except not even five minutes after he’d settled in one of the abandoned lawn chairs to look up at the sky, he sensed someone approaching. He glanced that way and… it was Hat Kid. Of course it was her, who else was insane enough to be up and about after midnight. He glanced away, pretending he wasn’t aware of her.

_Thankfully_ she went right by him. … Or at least for a bit she did because she turned around and came right back after only getting a few feet away. As she stepped up right beside his chair, he pulled his hood down over his face in an attempt to hide his ghostly features. The owls had a tendency to be very anxious, hopefully she’d attribute his behaviour to a stronger version of that.

“Hello?” she said.

“U-uh hi kid,” he replied, perfectly mimicking an owl, layering on the anxiety a bit thicker than normal. He just wanted to be left alone, why was that so much to ask? “W-what are you… doing up so l-late?” That wasn’t too much, was it?

“I’m looking for a friend of mine. I figured he’d probably only come out when it’s dark because he’s a big old grump who doesn’t like people and he snuck abroad illegally.”

“W-well I haven’t seen him so…”

“I don’t need your help finding him because I already have, _right_ Snatcher?” Damn it! “I saw your eyes before you covered them when you glanced my way as I approached. I was already suspecting it was you anyway because I knew you’d be out her tonight. I just wanted to mess with you a little. Your acting is very good though. You should talk to one or both of the directors about getting a role in a movie one day.”

Snatcher sighed as he gave up hiding his face and pulled his hood back up to look at her. “You found me, congrats,” he said in his normal voice but quieter in case anyone else was nearby who might hear.

She smiled at him. “You want to play a game?”

“No, I want you to leave me alone.” Which probably wasn’t going to happen but he could try, right?

“But I want to play.” She pouted at him as if that would ever sway him. “What if I blackmailed you into playing with me? I’ll tell the Captain about you and where to find you and then you’ll be in trouble.”

“You are aware right that I can just kill him if he tries to kick me off or anything else, right?”

“Yep, but you don’t want to bother with all that because then you’re going to have to deal with the whole crew and everyone else on the ship reacting to you in some way. And I know for a fact that at least all the seals would attack you, they’re too loyal to the Captain to not back him up in things. So instead of dealing with all _that_ you can put up with playing with me for a few hours instead, how’s that sound?”

Would she _really_ risk that though? … If it were anyone other than her, he’d have bet on this being a bluff but she was insane, unpredictable even, borderline feral. So… she _might_ be willing to risk the lives of everyone on board in order to get him to play with her. Meaning he had a choice to make, say ‘no’ and deal with all _that_ nonsense, ruining the vacation, or say ‘yes’ and play with her for a few hours.

With a sigh he stood up and discard the coat before morphing to be a clone of her. “Fine, I’ll play with you.” Hopefully the late hour would result in her getting sleepy soon so he wouldn’t have to up with her for long.

“Yes! I knew you’d see reason.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. What game do you want to play?” If it was anything too obnoxious, he’d refuse, peck the consequences.

“Hmm…” Hat Kid lifted hand to tap a finger to her chin in an exaggerated thinking pose. “I was _planning_ on asking you to play ball with me but seeing you shapeshift like that has got me wondering just how much you _can_ shapeshift.”

“That’s not a game.”

“We can _make_ it a game though. We can play with the ball and every time you catch it you have to morph into a new shape, if you repeat one or don’t change, you lose and have to say something nice about me. _I_ lose if I have to use any of my hats to catch the ball and then I have to say something nice about you before leaving you alone to be your grumpy old self. We can change the specifics of the game if we get bored. Sound like fun?”

What would happen if he won sure did, otherwise, no. But if he won fast, it’d be not a problem at all so… “All right fine.”

“Good! And _no_ cheating otherwise you lose by default and we have to play something else after you say something nice about me. Cheating includes, throwing the ball overboard or anywhere that’s impossible for me to catch it, okay?” Well there went that plan.

Oh well, he’d just have to beat her fair and square, it couldn’t be that hard, could it? “ _Fine_ , just go get a stupid ball to play with already so we can get this over with.” He wanted to get back to relaxing and doing nothing.

Hat Kid smiled at him before running off. She returned with a purple bouncy ball that had his face on it, she was holding it as if to make sure he saw it. He almost asked her where she got it from but didn’t, mostly because that’s clearly what she wanted but also because he wasn’t in the mood and really didn’t care. He’d find out on his own time later and sue the pants off them for using his likeness without permission.

She tossed it at him and he caught it, morphing into a likeness of Mustache Girl as he did so. This was going to be _easy_.

Except it wasn’t easy, not as a whole anyway. At the start it was because there were _plenty_ of people he could morph into and just catching the ball was simple. He started running out of people to turn into after a short while though and had to think fast for something new each time the ball was thrown his way. One time he even morphed into a likeness of himself when he was alive, cringing internally as he did so and _hating_ it.

After that was when he _really_ started trying hard to beat her. He was _not_ going to lose to her at a children’s game of catch that eventually turned into basically volleyball, with a pool between them instead of a net. Another reason he was so eager to win though was because shapeshifting was one of the more taxing forms of magic. It took a lot of energy to shift one’s entire shape into something new, especially so quickly. And the more he did it in rapid succession, the more it seemed to take out of him.

Eventually he had the thought to start morphing into fictional beings which saved him and opened a whole slew of new options. That there was no way he had enough energy to last long enough to get through. He needed to win _now_.

The ball was coming his way. He tried to morph as he moved towards it but… nope, he was out of energy. Instead he stumbled and lost balance, faceplanting into the deck instead. That’s part of the reason he hated walking around on legs, too easy to trip and fall. The ball hit on the head a second later, adding insult to injury. The only thing more humiliating than this moment was when he’d lost to Hat Kid after taking two EX potions. … Ugh, why did all his most humiliating moments involve Hat Kid?

He looked up as the sound of Hat Kid running around to him. She looked… _concerned_? “Are you okay?” she asked upon reaching him.

He groaned. “You won, please leave me alone now.”

“You fell and aren’t moving anymore, so no, I’m not leaving until you I know you’re okay.”

“I’m _fine_ kid,” he said as he finally pushed himself upright. “I’m just out of energy.” He should _not_ have agreed to that game. If he’d known it would’ve dragged on for about the hour or so it did, he wouldn’t have. “Shapeshifting isn’t easy to do.”

“Oh, sorry but… that means you’ll be okay with some rest?”

“Yes, now leave me be.”

“Still nope, you lost so you have to say something nice to me now. _Also_ , I want to know what your shifted into because you’re _adorable_.”

Giving into her demands would probably be the quickest way to get rid of her. What could he possibly say that was nice about her though? … “Your top hat is decent as far as top hats worn by feral alien children go.”

“Well… I was hoping for something different but… thank you, I guess.”

“As for what my current form is, it’s Stitch from the movie Lilo and Stitch.” He’d chosen it at random but with Hat Kid being an alien, it was a fitting form to take.

“You’re going to have show me that movie later if it has something as cute as you are now in it. _But_ are you stuck like that? I assume you are because otherwise you would’ve gone back to your normal shape by now, right?”

“Yes, I’m currently stuck and its _your_ fault. So please just leave me alone now.” If he ate the soul of one of the passengers would anyone notice? That’d be the quickest way to regain his strength, he could use his current cuteness to disarm them too.

“Hmm… okay. But you want to go back into my room and rest for a bit. Since you’re like that, we could say you’re my pet, right? Since you look a lot like an animal. That way you don’t have to hide and stuff and no one should care that you didn’t buy a ticket.” That was fitting in a way she didn’t even understand.

“No, thanks. Just let me rest out here.” He’d slink back to his box later when the sun started getting close to rising. Until then he wanted to go back to staring up at the night sky.

“Uh… all right. But sorry about this, I didn’t know it would happen. I wouldn’t have forced you to do it if I had. So… see you later.” She patted him on the head before collecting the ball and _finally_ running off.


	17. Triple Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the drabble event, After getting everyone else in therapy, Hat Kind gets woken up by Mu and Snatcher and when she goes to the bay(?) area, she sees everyone there before they drag her to therapy!

It was Mu, meaning unfortunately Snatcher wasn’t getting a soul today because killing one of Hat Kid’s friends would upset her. And… he may have a bit of a soft spot for kids in general so no killing Mu or forcing her to sign a contract. That didn’t mean he couldn’t spook her though, it was the first time she’d stepped into his forest without Hat Kid accompanying her after all.

But mere feet away from triggering his trap, she stopped. “Snatcher, I know you’re around here somewhere so get you dumb noodle butt out here I want to talk to you,” she shouted loud enough to disturb the forest’s peace.

Had she _really_ just told him to get his ‘dumb noddle butt out there’? Since when was being rude to a powerful soul eating ghost something people just _did_? Only Hat Kid had ever shown him that level of disrespect and even then, only after she’d bested him in combat. What did he _do_ about it though when eating her soul wasn’t an option?

“Hurry up, I don’t got all day,” she shouted some more. “It’s important.”

He teleported to loom in front of her. Sadly, she didn’t even flinch. Whatever. “What is it?” he asked, getting straight to the point to get this over with as soon as possible.

“It’s about Hat Kid. She’s got like everyone else to start going to therapy but I think it’s time we drag _her_ to therapy because she’s probably just as messed up in the head as the rest of us. I mean, she hasn’t told me much but what little she has said about her home planet got me thinking it’s not a nice place _and_ all of us have tried to kill her, that’s got to be pretty traumatizing, right?”

In hindsight, Snatcher probably should’ve already considered this but the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. That just went to show just how ‘good’ a dad he was – he’d _told_ her he wasn’t dad material but she’d insisted and now here they were. “You’re right, especially about her home planet.” The more he learned about it, the more he hated the place despite having never been there. “You already have an appointment scheduled for her?” She’d booked appointments for all of them before telling them about it, basically forcing them to go, so it was only fair they do the same thing back to her, right?

“Not yet, no. I figured you should probably do that since you guys ‘live’ together. I want to be there when you tell her about it though because it was _my_ idea.”

Well putting up with her attitude couldn’t be that much worse than putting up with Hat Kid’s feralness so… “Fine, let’s go handle that.” Unless booking the appointment took a long time, they’d probably end up waking Hat Kid up because it was early morning still. If so, she’d just have to suck it up because Snatcher wasn’t putting with Mu hanging around while they waited for her to wake up so they could force her to get professional help.


	18. Prank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I dont know if you still accept prompts, but if you do may i request something with HK and Bow talking in their native language?

“ **Bow, perfect timing, I was just coming to look for you**.”

Bow looked over as Hat Kid skipped up to join her in the middle of Subcon Village. She’d just exited the horizon to find Hat Kid so this was perfect timing for her too. But…

“ **Why aren’t we speaking English**?” she asked. Lately, even when it was just the two of them chatting, they used English except for a few times when they were alone on the ship together.

“ **Because** **I have something secret, I need to discuss with you and I don’t want the Subconites to hear us because they’d tell Snatcher and this is about him**.” She even translated Snatcher’s name. “ **I want to prank him! It’ll be fun and he deserves it**.”

Bow couldn’t deny that that would probably be fun or that Snatcher deserved to be pranked, he was a bit of grump. “ **Okay, how we going to prank him**?”

“ **Uh… I don’t know. That’s why I want to discuss it with you. You’re better at coming up with good pranks and stuff. My go-to is always ding-dong-ditch and he doesn’t even have a doorbell so that won’t work. And I’ve tried sneaking up on him to surprise him but it doesn’t work, he always knows I’m there I think because magic and stuff. I even gave him a glitter-bomb once which was pretty funny until he magicked all the glitter away. Like who _does_ that? I didn’t know that was physically _possible_ even with magic. _And_ it was super lame. So I really don’t know what to do**.”

“ **He magicked that glitter to Moonjumper. I was there when it happened, it was pretty funny**.” Bow had been wondering where the glitter had came from. The fact that it was basically a recycled prank made all the funnier.

Hat Kid’s eyes widened in pleased surprise. “ **That makes it better. You’ll have to tell me the details later _after_ we prank Snatcher properly. So you got any ideas**?”

The Subconites were loosely gathering around them now, probably confused about their native language. It was a bit awkward so Bow hooked her arm through Hat Kid’s and started them walking. They could go for a nice stroll around the forest while they discussed the best possible way to prank Snatcher. She might even ask Moonjumper to help them because he’d _totally_ be down for that.

***

“ _Lukas_ ,” Moonjumper said in a sing-songy voice as he floated into Snatcher’s hollow.

Snatcher lowered his book to frown at him. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with him right now, though he _never_ was. “What do you want?”

“Our kiddos have run off to explore Vanessa’s Manor and have not returned. I am starting to feel a bit worried.” He even wore a worried expression on his borrowed face.

“Why would they go to the manor again?” They’d already been and had come back unscathed. Surely there was nothing more for them there.

“To explore because they were bored. I think we should go investigate.”

“Why should I come with you? You’re the one who’s worried.” Snatcher didn’t care. If Vanessa froze them, that was their problem and apparently Moonjumper’s. He wasn’t worried, nope, not at all.

“You were _awfully_ scared of Vanessa when you died. That fear has bled into me somewhat so I would very much appreciate if you came with me.” That may be true but he’d interacted with Vanessa a number of times since possessing Snatcher’s body and had been just fine. Meaning he was lying about why he wanted Snatcher to come. Meaning this was probably one of his tricks. He was trying to cause trouble and Snatcher wasn’t going to fall for it. … He would check just to make sure though.

He teleported to the bridge separating the forest from Vanessa’s icy domain. “Did Hat Kid and Bow come through here recently?” he asked the Subconite currently on watch duty.

“Yep, like almost an hour or so ago, I think. They said they were going to explore the manor or something. Why?”

Dammit! It still had to be a trick of some sort, right? Because Moonjumper was involved, he _wanted_ Snatcher to investigate this. And even though they had gone, they’d beamed back up to their ship because that’s how they left every place they went.

Snatcher teleported up their ship. He shrunk down into a Hat Kid shape so he easily fit through the doors and hallways. It wasn’t a large ship so it didn’t take long to determine they weren’t here. Which didn’t mean they were still at the manor, they could be any number of places but… Snatcher was going to check to make sure, wasn’t he? _Just_ in case they were in trouble. Dammit!

He teleported back to the bridge, not even bothering to change his shape. He needed a disguise to sneak into the manor anyway, might as well stay as Hat Kid. “I’ll be right back,” he told the Subconite. “If Moonjumper shows up, tell him to peck off.”

“Is something wrong Boss?”

“I don’t know we’ll see. Just stay here,” Snatcher said as he started across the bridge. He would teleport to the manor directly but doing so would alert Vanessa to his presence. He needed to be stealthy.

Unsurprisingly, there was evidence of the kids passing through. The first magical ice barrier was still down so was the second. He didn’t make it to the end of the tunnel before finding Hat Kid and Bow though.

They were frozen solid. The positions made it clear they’d been running away, fear etched onto their frozen faces. And worst of all Snatcher couldn’t sense life from either of them.

He floated over to hover in front of Hat Kid, face to face with her. It _couldn’t_ be true. There was _no_ way it was. Hat Kid couldn’t actually be… _dead_. He lifted a shaking hand to touch her face. But right before making contact…

“Fooool!” she shouted as the ice fell away and she stood before him in full colour and fully alive again. “We were totally fine this whole time!”

Snatcher could _sense_ her again too. She was alive. So was Bow and they were wearing their ice hats. … Moonjumper had to have been hiding them from Snatcher’s magic senses. _That_ was the trick. Snatcher should’ve known. But the sight had just been so _shocking_.

“Uh… are you okay?” Hat Kid asked, the mirth gone from her voice, replaced with concern of all things. “Did we…”

“I _hate_ you,” Snatcher interrupted, looking back up to glare at her. “ _Both_ of you, but especially _you_.” He pointed at Hat Kid. “If we weren’t so close to the manor, I’d kill you for that.”

Hat Kid opened her mouth to respond but Snatcher didn’t stick around to hear it. Instead he teleported away. Vanessa would sense it but peck it, who cared? Let the damn kids deal with her.

***

Bow couldn’t help but flinch a little as Snatcher vanished. Hat Kid then turned to face her, the look on her face mirroring Bow’s own feelings of guilt.

“Do you think we went too far?” Hat Kid asked in a whisper.

Yes, without a doubt they’d gone too far. The look on Snatcher’s face when he’d approached Hat Kid’s ice statue had confirmed it. The fact that he’d been wearing Hat Kid’s shape at the time seemed to make it worse in a way too. Before Bow could say that though…

“No, of course not,” Moonjumper said, suddenly hovering over Bow’s shoulder. “There’s no such thing as taking a prank too far. Lukas will be fine, he just needs some time to _chill_.” He grinned at his own pun. … As much as Bow loved him, she had to admit he was a bit mean sometimes, especially when it came to pranks and mischief in general. “I do recommend fleeing from this wretched place though because the ice bitch is on her way. Let’s go to the horizon.”

Bow took Hat Kid’s hand, giving it a comforting squeeze as Moonjumper magicked up a path to the horizon and led the way. “ **I’m sure it’ll be fine** ,” she whispered, using their native language because of Moonjumper’s insensitivity about this topic which she’d try to talk to him about later. “ **Just… maybe apologize to him after he’s had some time to calm down? I’m positive he’ll forgive you**.”

Hat Kid sighed. “ **I hope he does even if… I don’t know if I deserve it**.”


	19. Apology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if all you need is for someone to request it then i would like to request a continuation/resolution to prank because i just want em to be ok again ; ;

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, it's fortuitous that these two drabbles/oneshots ended up being back to back.

It was almost two whole days before Hat Kid came around to bother Snatcher again. He didn’t lower his book as she strode up to the hollow but he could sense her hesitance in the soft sound of her footsteps and the way she didn’t say anything. So he ignored her, pretending not to notice. Hopefully she’d just go away and go back to leaving him alone because he _still_ wasn’t in the mood to deal with her.

She didn’t go though even as the seconds started to turn into minutes. She stood there silently in the entrance of the hollow, apparently waiting for him to lower his book and see her. Well he wasn’t going to. He was dead so he had all the time in the world to wait her out.

“Snatcher,” she finally said. Why couldn’t she have left instead?

Well, he was going to keep ignoring her anyway. He was at an interesting part in his book, he wasn’t going to put it down for her.

“I’m sorry, I _really_ am.”

Snatcher didn’t respond. She’d give up and leave eventually, she _had_ to.

“We _went_ way too far. I wanted to prank you but I couldn’t think of anything so I talked to Bow about it because she’s good at that kind of thing. She suggested maybe something with Vanessa because she doesn’t know about your former relationship with Vanessa. So I told her that probably wasn’t a good idea and proposed the idea with the ice hats instead. It wasn’t originally supposed to be like _that_ though. I was thinking we’d just go into your hollow and do it and mostly just surprise you when we burst into motion again. But then Moonjumper came in and asked us what we were talking about and Bow explained it and _he_ suggested we do it by the manor and to wait a while after heading down that way before he goes and tells you to come looking for us. And… I guess he did something to make us seem dead too, right?

“I’m not making excuses,” she continued. “I still agreed to do it, so did Bow. It was a bad idea and we shouldn’t’ve but with all the discussion going on I was just so caught up in the excitement of doing a prank that… I didn’t pause to think how you would react to thinking that me and Bow were dead. And I’m…”

Snatcher finally lowered his book to glare at her. “And what makes you think I’d care about that? You dying means _nothing_ to me. I’m actually disappointed it was a prank because if it was real, I wouldn’t have deal with you anymore.”

She gave him a sad look. “Are you really going to try to pretend that that’s true? Even when frozen with the ice hat, I can still see just fine. So I saw the look on your face when you thought I was dead and the look you had when you found out it was fake, that you’d been tricked. _And_ you came looking for me and Bow despite your history with the manor _and_ Moonjumper being the one to tell you to look in the first place. So are you _really_ going to try to pretend to hate me right now? That the _horrible_ thing I did and am currently I’m _trying_ to apologize for, _wasn’t_ horrible? _Really_?” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, _almost_ making him feel bad.

She had a point though. Given his reactions, emotional and thus unconscious physical actions, he couldn’t deny even to himself that the thought and sight of her being dead especially a death like _that_ – one of if not the worst ways to die as far as he was concerned – had been _very_ upsetting. Which meant he did care. She’d grown on him like mold and suddenly he cared for her. Officially making her worse than all the various pet cats and occasional dog or other animal he’d found himself in care of over the years because she wasn’t a dumb animal, she had the capacity to hurt him. And she had.

“Fine kid,” he said. “I thought you were dead. I _thought_ Vanessa had _killed_ you. I thought you had _frozen_ to death, encased in her ice, one of the _worst_ ways to die if you ask me or _any_ of the Subconites. And you _wanted_ me to think that. You, Bow, and your damn friend Moonjumper all _wanted_ me to believe that.” They’d wanted to cause him anguish. Moonjumper, sure that was expected, perhaps Bow too because she’d aligned herself with Moonjumper. But _Hat Kid_ , he never would’ve thought she’d do something like that to anyone she cared about, not just him.

Hat Kid sniffled as a tear leaked down her face. “I know and I’m really, really sorry. I’m… not asking you to forgive me but I do want you to know that I feel _really_ bad and didn’t _mean_ to hurt you. You’re my BFF, I would’ve never done something like that if I’d known how awful it was. I was just being stupid and not thinking. So… again I apologize.”

Snatcher scoffed. “Good for you, now leave me alone.” He raised his book again even though there was no way he could focus on it now.

“Okay,” Hat Kid replied in small voice before leaving, beaming back up to her ship. But she’d _left_ when he told her to, that was a first. He almost wanted to be happy about it. She’d be back though; she always came back.

Except she didn’t come back. A whole week went by and she didn’t even enter Subcon as far as Snatcher could tell. Moonjumper could’ve hidden her presence from him but if so, while in the forest she never once came to bother Snatcher or was anywhere he would see her. Meaning she _probably_ wasn’t going into the forest at all.

A while ago, he would’ve been pleased by this development. At what point that had changed, he wasn’t sure but it had. Now he kind of missed her even despite how she’d used the soft spot he’d grown for to hurt him. … It hadn’t been a betrayal though; it had been a prank gone too far, the idea of which partially came from Moonjumper. So the blame didn’t _entirely_ rest on her, just most of it. But she was also a kid and kids were known not to be able to fully understand the consequences of their actions until they were dealing with them. _And_ she’d apologized profusely and had seemingly accepted that he didn’t want her hanging around anymore.

Did that mean he should forgive her though? And if so, should he _tell_ her that he forgave her? … It had been a long time since he’d had a connection with a person who wasn’t one of the Subconites: his followers and subordinates. And for the last three hundred years or so, he’d only ever _lost_ the occasional follower, he’d never gained anything new that was substantial. So he wasn’t sure how to conduct himself in a ‘BFF’ kind of relationship.

Well what would he have done if one or more of the Subconites had managed to do something like that? Intentionally scaring him into thinking they were destroyed instead of doing so completely on accident as they ended up doing occasionally. … He’d forgive them, wouldn’t he? Because he cared for his followers, his reputation meant he had to keep that a secret but after three hundred plus years he could admit that to himself. Just like after that ‘prank’, he had to admit he cared for Hat Kid too. So…

He teleported to her ship. In her room, in his corner above the pillow pool. She wasn’t there but that was fine. He had some stuff he needed to write up anyway. So he summoned in some candles and settled in.

It was a few hours before she returned, plenty of time of him to finish what he was working on and get a bit of reading done. She gasped as soon as she saw him as the door opened automatically at her presence.

“Hey kiddo,” he said with his usual grin as she entered. “Remember the Death Wish contracts? I’ve come up with some more if you’re interested. None of them even come close to that final battle or its reward.” Which she was currently wearing along with the bow he’d made her. “But they’re pretty challenging anyway. So, what to give them a go?”

She ran over to stand next to him. “Does… does this mean you forgive me?” she asked with desperate hope on her face and in her voice. Why couldn’t she have just assumed that and let him pretend it had never happened?

“Yes, I forgive you, I guess. _Never_ do that or anything like it again though, okay?”

She nodded vigorously. “Yes, I won’t ever do anything like that ever again, I _promise_.” She then hugged him, dipping in under his arm still holding his book and wrapping her arms around him. He sighed and tolerated it until she had her fill and finally let go and stepped back. “Now, about those new contracts,” she said, her face lighting up with excitement. How much she loved danger and dangerous challenges almost made him worry about her sometimes. But she was capable and he’d keep a close eye on her so she’d be fine.


	20. English

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Takes place in a different timeline. It might be too much so feel free to delete this if you want. You’re a great writer and I understand if you do.) prompt: Hat Kid was having a horrible day. The morning had started out great, but that was the best it got. Cooking Cat finally built up her self esteem enough for her to start talking. She was almost completely mute, but when she started warming up to her friends CC helped her build up courage to start speaking to her friends. Today was her first day, and it was going horribly. The mafia (being the stupid people they are) had never heard her speak and insisted she was an imposter. After the fight, she couldn’t find Mu, so she went to Dead Bird Studios. The two directors were overjoyed to have her speaking, but immediately gave here stacks and stacks of papers full of lines for her to say in their next movie. She was overwhelmed, and left. Going to mafia town was out of the question. She didn’t want to go back to dead bird studios in fear that Conductor and DJ Grooves would be mad. She knew Subcon forest was a place she was always welcome. She beamed down, and glumly walked to Snatcher’s tree. Here she was. Hopefully Snatcher wouldn’t overreact. “Hi Sna-“ “Not now, kid. I’m busy. Whatever it is you want to show me, I’m sure all your other boring friends will like it way better than I will,” He didn’t even wait for her to respond. He wasn’t even listening when she spoke to him for the first time! Her day was only getting worse. “If they haven’t already told you the same thing.” Snatcher had a smug grin on his face after his last remark. That’s it. Her first time speaking to her new friends in public, and THIS is what she gets!? She was fuming. She wasn’t thinking. “ YOU’RE JUST A BIG MEANY! YOU’RE JUST AS BAD AS VANESSA!” Snatcher’s grin was gone. It was replaced by an expression of utter shock. Once he registered what she said, he wasn’t thinking either. “OH YEAH? WELL I LIKED YOU WELL I LIKED YOU BETTER WHEN YOU WERE MUTE!” After the outburst, both Hat Kid and Snatcher came to their senses. Hat Kid’s lip was trembling, and she was trying her best not to cry. She beamed herself up to her ship, both of them thinking, “Why did I say that?”
> 
> I changed this request to fit how I prefer to write Hat Kid.

Speaking English was _hard_. Not the understanding of it, Hat Kid had a special app on her phone to help her with that until she’d mastered it – which had happened fairly quick because she was apparently a ‘prodigy’ which meant she was supposedly super smart or something – the wonders of coming from a technologically advanced civilization. But making the sounds for it was tough, thankfully physically possible for her to do but very difficult, unnatural, and uncomfortable.

She was getting the hang of it though. She practiced alone in her ship with only Rumbi as a witness, using the language app on her phone for guidance and recording. She wanted the first time she spoke in English to someone to be perfect. She was a ‘prodigy’ after all, people expected great things from her all the time, she couldn’t be seen struggling to do something as simple as speaking a language she already completely understood.

Right now, everyone thought she was mute. She hadn’t told them that, just let them assume it. When she spoke perfect clear understandable English to them, they were going to be _so_ surprised. She’d probably bend the truth a little in explanation, say her vocal cords wouldn’t let her speak English but she’d fixed it with some alien tech she’d devised. No one should question that because aliens and magic could explain away anything and everything.

When finally at long last, she was able to speak whole tongue twisters with clear diction, she decided it was finally time to go talk to someone. After wishing Rumbi a quick “Farewell,’ – speaking English of course – she beamed down to the planet, Mafia Town to be precise.

She was never really sure where to find Mu but Cooking Cat’s studio was always a good place to look. Except she wasn’t there, neither was Cooking Cat or any of the film crew. Checking their house revealed the same thing. It was possible they were off on another business trip for the show even though they’d just come back from the Metro like two weeks ago. So, Hat Kid didn’t look many more places before giving up and moving on to Dead Bird Studio.

She found the directors brainstorming in DJ Grooves’ dressing room, the bigger of the two dressing rooms. They were sitting side by side and hunched in, looking at what was presumably the script for their next collab movie. They both looked up at her as she stepped in and closed the door behind her loud enough for them to hear.

“Hey darling,” DJ Grooves said. “You need something?”

“Yes, hello lass,” the Conductor said, speaking much more offhandedly. “We’re kind of busy right now so make it quick.”

Now was the moment of truth. The first English words she would speak to real people. If she messed this up, she would be haunted by it forever. She took a deep breath and put on a smile. “Hello Conductor. Hello DJ Grooves.” Yes! Perfect, she’d nailed it.

They both froze staring at her in silence. Eventually the Conductor broke it. “You can speak?”

“Yep, sure can. I always could, just not English. I’m an alien, remember? My vocal cords and stuff are different than yours. But I fixed it and now I can speak English too. Cool, right?” Still speaking flawlessly. Why had she ever been worried? She was a natural at this. … Sort of anyway, it had taken a _lot_ of practice, more than she would _ever_ admit to anyone.

The Conductor and DJ Grooves exchanged a look and had a quick whispered exchange she couldn’t make out. They then turned back to face her. “Darling, you know what this means, right?”

“Uh… no, what does it mean?”

“It means we can now cast you in _speaking_ roles. The people are going to absolutely _love_ you even more than they did before.”

“Yep,” the Conductor said. “We’re actually working on a script right now, almost done with it actually. One of the roles would be _perfect_ for you now that you can speak. Want to see?” He held up the messy bunch of papers the two of them had been working on when Hat Kid came in.

She wasn’t sure she was ready for _that_ kind of thing yet. But she couldn’t say ‘no’, could she? She didn’t want them to know she wasn’t entirely confident in her speech so… “Okay.” She liked working with them anyway even if from here on out how she worked with them would probably be very different. That was fine though, she needed the speech practice anyway.

Turns out carrying a proper conversation and even acting out a few lines in English was more difficult than Hat Kid had thought it’d be. She didn’t mess up only out of sheer willpower not to because she got really close quite a few times, making the whole ordeal rather stressful. She got out as soon as she reasonably could, leaving feeling exhausted.

She should _probably_ take a break, chill out on her ship for a while, playing video games or something. But she’d only talked to two people so far. She wanted to talk to _at least_ one more before calling it quits for the day. Snatcher was the natural choice; he was her BFF and most of the time he wasn’t super chatty so a conversation with him shouldn’t be too taxing.

When she beamed down to Subcon, Snatcher wasn’t in his large reading hollow. Meaning Hat Kid had to go find him. Which was fine, walking through the woods was always nice. She found him in Subcon Village with all the Subconites standing in front of him, listening to whatever he was saying. Which Hat Kid didn’t get to hear any of because he stopped talking as soon as she stepped into the village.

“You are all dismissed,” he said, speaking to the Subconites who quickly scattered. “What do you want kid? I’m _busy_.” And apparently rather grouchy about it. So maybe now wasn’t a good time to talk to him but she’d already disturbed him so… whatever. Her revealing her ability to speak should cheer him up a bit anyway though, right?

“Hello Snatcher,” she said with a smile and a wave.

He paused in surprise but… he seemed unimpressed, crossing his arms as he frowned at her. “So you can speak now huh?” He didn’t seem to be acting either, he seemed to genuinely _not_ care.

“Yep, sure can. Actually, I could…”

“I really don’t care kid,” he interrupted. “I have more important things to worry about right now. So peck off and talk to any of your dumb friends who _do_ care. Just get out of my forest.” He made a shooing gesture towards her.

It was probably because Hat Kid was already tired but she was far more hurt by Snatcher’s words than she normally would be. It made her angry because she’d worked _so hard_ on learning how to speak and he _didn’t care_. “You’re _mean_ ,” she said, glaring up at him.

“Have you only just now figured that out kid? You’re real slow on the uptake there, huh?” He grinned at her, mocking her, making her angrier.

“Peck you,” she said, pointing at him. “I hate you. You’re worse than _Vanessa_. I hope she finds you again, you two deserve each other.” She said it because it was the _worst_ thing that came to her in the moment. There were worse things she could’ve said for sure but… this was bad enough; she regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth.

His grin vanished; his expression suddenly unreadable but it certainly wasn’t _just_ furious. “Yeah well, I wished you’d stayed mute, you little _brat_. Now get _out of my forest_.”

Hat Kid sensed energy building beneath her feet. She jumped out of the way _just_ in time to avoid one of Snatcher’s magic blasts. He didn’t follow it up with another one though. Instead he just looked at her in silence, his expression still unreadable.

Hat Kid should apologize, right? What she’d said was _way_ out of line. But… what he’d said and done wasn’t any better, wasn’t it? Who had started it though? … She was no longer sure.

Instead of doing anything to try to fix it, she pulled out her phone and beamed herself back up to her ship. She didn’t want Snatcher to see her tears should she fail to fight them off. And he wanted her to leave anyway, rightfully so too, meaning she should, considering what had just happened. She’d apologize later when they’d both had some time to calm down.


	21. Pandemonium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Snatcher realizes that he could shape shift to look almost the same as any metro cat and decides to wreak havoc in the metro just because he can

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I reference my Betrayal drabble pretty heavily in this, this became a follow up to that. You don't have to read that to get this though, just thought I'd mention it if y'all want context on the mentions of Hat Kid's situation in this.

The Metro was abuzz, everyone was excited and talking about the same thing. There were different versions of the story, some clearly exaggerated, others probably based off incomplete info. But wondering around disguised as a cat, eavesdropping on different conversations quickly led to Snatcher knowing the basic gist of what happened. Hat Kid was in jail because she’d almost murdered a powerful lady known as the Empress with her venom following a chase that ended in an elevator. The cops had seemingly come in right before Hat Kid could finish the Empress off, making her looking not great.

Getting her exonerated was going to be _easy_ though, it had been self-defense _and_ she was a child. She didn’t even really need his help, she could just explain the situation to the cops and judge with a little tack and be let off. Possibly without even a slap on the wrist because word on the street currently was that it seemed the Empress was going to survive. He’d still help though because he’d said he would and he was already here. Not yet though, he’d let her stew for a few more hours.

Which left him nothing to do for a while. Under different circumstances he would’ve read a book but between the horrid trains, rattling along the tracks everywhere and the hordes of awful people babbling constantly to each other, it was way too loud down here. He _hated_ it. Which was why he was going to have a little fun and mess shit up instead just because he could.

He started with a food cart. What it was serving was hard to tell from so far away but it smelled gross when combined with the scents in the rest of the Metro. All the food carts were contributing to that foul order, how anyone could stand it was beyond him. But he was done putting up with it.

With a little bit of concentration, he summoned a blue potion inside the cart and let it drop. It exploded with a bang, making the cat attending the cart jump out through the window their fur puffing up. Their back was splattered with the blue potion and a quick peek inside revealed that the inside of the cart, including in fryer and other food preparing equipment, was too. _That_ was probably going to be a pain to clean up. Grinning, Snatcher moved on as people starting gathering around the food car attendant in curiosity.

The next food cart wasn’t even a full five minute walk away. This place was insane; he was _pretty_ sure mortals didn’t need to eat that much so what was the point of having them so close together? Whatever, he summoned a blue potion in that one too, just far enough away for the cat attending it to be frightened and splattered in blue but unharmed. It coated everything inside with blue too though, hopefully ruining their food business for the day because it was most likely toxic.

He did that to _every_ food cart and food stand he passed by, not even pausing his stroll as he did so. It caused quite the stir and tons of complaining from people who wanted to eat. Everyone wanted to know what was going on and why, it even replaced the chatter about the incident with Hat Kid, though in one overheard conversation someone suggested perhaps the two were related somehow. Which was in a way, the truth.

No one paid Snatcher any mind, he was just another cat among a sea of cats. He wore sunglasses and a surgical mask to hide his glowing eyes and mouth so he wasn’t a hundred percent inconspicuous but there were enough people with similar things that he still wasn’t different enough to truly stand out especially with the slightly smaller than average shape he’d chosen. So he was free to meander his way throughout the entire metro system, ruining the days of many food cart attendants. Undoubtedly, he didn’t reach every food cart, there were tons of small side pages that he didn’t bother going down that probably housed more food places, but going along all the main paths meant he most likely got most of them. Which was good enough for him.

Next he moved on to causing a _bit_ more of a serious problem. The cats pulled their trains along with a special harness. It was about time for them to take a break though so with two little blasts of magic summoned right on the harness itself where it connected to the part attached to the train and lots of focus, Snatcher was able to free the first cat from its train while it waited for passengers to board.

No one seemed to notice and the cat took off a few seconds later, leaving the train behind much to the shock of everyone watching. The cat seemed to realize its mistake after a few seconds, skidding to a halt. It looked back at its train, clearly confused before settling down probably to wait for officials to come alone and fix the issue. They were about to get many calls.

Snatcher moved on, acting as if being distracted by the train-free cat might cause him to be late for something important. It wasn’t like anyone was paying attention to him but it didn’t hurt to be cautious.

He didn’t want to hurt the train-cats, they were just dumb animals after all, so he only freed them at stops. He could probably summon small blasts on a moving target if he really tried but being off even by a few inches would likely cause pain for the cat, not much but far more than it deserved. And the momentum of the train would likely cause issues too. It was more fun this way anyway because the cats always took a few seconds, sometimes more, to realize they’d run off without their train. They always had the cutest looks of confusion on their face when they looked back too.

But even with that slowing him down, it wasn’t long before pandemonium descended upon the Metro. There weren’t enough spare harnesses to even get close to fixing the problem even if they had enough personal to actually put them all on all the cats. Everyone was in a panic and furious because they couldn’t go where they needed to go. The ruined food carts only made the situation worse because no one could even stop anywhere to eat while they waited for things to get sorted out.

The chaos made it even easier for Snatcher to get around and continuing freeing the cats. All he had to do was put on airs like he was just as panicked and nervous as everyone else while he went from stop to stop, destroying more and more harnesses, enjoying every second of it.

He was probably a bit more than halfway through freeing all the currently working train-cats when a voice came over intercom. It was an apology for the inconvenience, promise that it was being looked into and would be fixed as soon as possible, and an announcement that the Metro trains would no longer be accepting passengers until they dealt with this.

Snatcher had singlehandedly shut down the _whole_ Metro without killing anyone. Without even drawing any attention to himself. It took all of his self-control not to burst into maniacal laughter. No one would ever even know this was him, it’d go down as a _mystery_. He should really try to get out more, huh? This was fun

It was probably time to go help out Hat Kid with her jail situation though. He’d sabotage every train on his way there of course, because it was fun and because he could.


	22. Naptime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i know it’s been awhile since it was brought up but if prompts are still being taken then may i request snatcher casually putting an overworked minion to “bed” in one of the nooses and hat kid and or maybe someone else having a wtf moment with snatcher having to explain , you don’t have to just thought i’d ask have a nice day

There was clearly something wrong with the Subconite reporting on the happenings in the forest while Snatcher had been away on the cruise ship. He sounded tired, like he was barely awake, probably because he’d been left in charge while Snatcher was away; a stressful position for sure. But honestly, Snatcher could relate, after everything that had happened on the cruise ship, he was exhausted too, not how one wanted to return from what was supposed to be a vacation. Except the Subconite had the fortune of being able to sleep after this meeting while Snatcher didn’t.

“All right, thanks,” he said once the Subconite was done with the report. “Go rest now.”

“Sure, thing Boss.” He saluted and marched out.

Despite those words a couple hours later Snatcher saw him again whilst patrolling the forest. He was on guard duty for the bridge leading to Vanessa’s domain. Someone needed to do it – not really, Snatcher would know if Vanessa started coming this way, they were all a little bit paranoid about her though and having someone on watch eased that somewhat – but he was _clearly_ fighting to stay awake. Sagging against the stone railing, his dipping forward only to jerk back up a few seconds later. He was fighting a losing battle.

“What are you doing?” Snatcher asked as he slid out of the shadows to loom over him.

He startled with a small squeak before looking up at Snatcher. “Standing guard.”

“Yes, but I _told_ you to rest, you clearly need it. So, why are you doing this and not that?”

“Well uh… Isaac, the guy who’s _supposed_ to be on watch right now, has been acting kinda sad the past couple weeks so I offered to take his shift for watch duty today. I promise I will rest after this though. … Except that’s like five hours away and like only one hour after that is when DnD starts, I _gotta_ be there for that so…”

Snatcher swooped in to pick him up by the cape. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with this so he wasn’t going to. He summoned in a different Subconite. “You’re on guard duty now,” he told them before teleporting to somewhere else in the forest.

There weren’t any Subconites currently napping in the set of nooses here like he’d thought maybe there would be but whatever, the Subconite could nap alone. It would probably result in him sleeping longer anyway so it was for the best.

“What’s this about Boss?” the Subconite asked.

“You know what it’s about.” Snatcher looped the noose around his neck and let him drop, careful to make sure there was a little swing in the rope that should help lull the Subconite to sleep.

A startled upset gasp came from behind him. He snapped around to see Hat Kid, poking her head out from behind a tree and staring in horror at the hanging Subconite. She opened her mouth to say something but Snatcher cut her off.

“It’s _fine_ kid.” He really wasn’t in the mood to try to explain what was going on but he had no choice. “They’re dead, remember? And they’re plushies. They don’t need to breath so it’s not hurting him.”

“Oh uh… yeah, I guess that’s true, huh?” she said, relaxing. “Why did you hang him though? Are you putting him in time out for being naughty?”

Before Snatcher could reply, the Subconite spoke up because the idiot still wasn’t falling asleep yet. “We nap in these so basically Boss put me to bed because I uh… probably need it.”

Hat Kid’s face lit up. “That’s even _better_. Oh Snatcher, that’s _adorable_. You’re like their dad, putting them bed when they need rest but don’t want it.”

“I am _not_ like their dad. I’m their ruler. They’re _useless_ to me when they’re not well rested and unfortunately, I have a finite number of them so as much as I would like to purge the ones who don’t rest when I tell them to, I can’t. So instead, I have to do _this_.” He gestured at the hanging Subconite. “It doubles as a way to deter possible intruders.”

Hat Kid smiled at him. “I know you’re just saying that because you like when people think you’re mean. That’s okay though, I understand why you’re like that. But let’s leave the Subconite to nap now.”

That was a good idea actually. Snatcher left, teleporting away and not even bringing Hat Kid with him; he was done talking with her about his relationship with his subjects.


	23. Poor Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> krekka01: Hi again! Not so much a prompt, but a potential idea for a future work. Due to Time Piece shenanigans, the Snatcher, either through short snippets or completely involved, finds himself thrown back in time before he died, but things are different. Namely, he's married to the florist lady. How would he react to this?

The now deceased Metro cat had been carrying a Time Piece, presumably they’d been trying to cut through the forest to smuggle it somewhere else because they’d been an idiot. It was Snatcher’s now though. For a time at least; Hat Kid would come looking for it eventually. He’d probably give it to her too to avoid another fight – after the final Death Wish contract, he had no desire to ever do battle with her ever again.

But Snatcher wanted to keep this one. He’d eaten the cat’s soul so everything the cat had owned was now rightfully _his_ as was the law of the land – he’d written that particular law but he was the monarch so he was allowed to. Also, he’d been a bit of a scholar back in the day and the thirst for knowledge had remained with him even through death and all those years; he wanted to resume his interrupted study of the Time Pieces. He also _kind of_ wanted to eat it.

The energy it gave off wasn’t exactly similar to a living soul’s but he was _pretty_ sure he could absorb it the same way he could a soul. Which _almost_ made it seem appetizing. It was more curiosity about what might happen if he did though. He’d seen the things Mu had done with the Time Pieces and as far as he knew she’d never had immense magic power before. What could someone who was experienced with having a vast amount of power do with even one Time Piece’s magic?

It sadly wasn’t something he was gong to find out anytime soon. It was possibly dangerous even to him. So he should do more study on the Time Piece more before…

“Is that a Time Piece?”

Snatcher looked up to see Hat Kid standing in the doorway to his reading hollow. Great, just what he needed. There was no point even trying to hide it, she’d already seen it.

“I don’t think you were holding one back though,” she continued, “because my ship’s sensors said there weren’t anymore in the forest. So you got it from somewhere else. That means _I_ don’t have to go find it though.” She skipped over and held up her hand as if she expected him just hand it over. “Thank you.”

Snatcher didn’t want to give it up though, not yet anyway. It was _his_ , he’d gotten it fair and square this time. He wanted to study it and know more. But he also didn’t want to fight over it, verbally or physically. Teleporting away would only delay the confrontation though so…

“Sorry kiddo, it’s mine now. Missing one shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

She took a breath to protest but gasped in shock instead as he opened wide and shoved the Time Piece into his mouth. As predicted, he absorbed its magic, not as smoothly or quickly as a soul because there were still some physical components to it but that only made it a little uncomfortable and take a bit longer.

“What the peck is _wrong_ with you?” she said, looking at him as if he’d just done something outrageous. Which he had but he felt damn good about it. “Why would you _do_ that?”

Before he could gloat though the new source of magic in him activated and suddenly everything was dark, pitch black. … Oh no! It had been a risk for sure but how badly had he just messed up? He could fix it though, right? Yeah, for sure he just had to…

His eyes snapped open to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. Something was very, _very_ wrong. It was dark, he could still see but _barely_ ; his night vision was compromised.

He let out a shaky breath, an actual _real_ breath because he was _breathing_ again. And his heart was beating too! He was _alive_ again!? How? Why? This couldn’t be real.

Shaking, he sat up and glanced around the room. There was a small window letting in moonlight but it was still so _dark_. He couldn’t make much more than basic shapes out. How did mortals deal with this?

Something shifted in the bed beside him. It was a person, still fast asleep. Their back was to him so even if he could see normally, he wouldn’t be able to see their face. They had long hair though so… was it Vanessa? It _had_ to be, right? The only person he’d ever slept next to while alive was Vanessa.

He couldn’t quite hold back a small yelp as he scrambled away from her and out of the bed. He was alive again so he had no magic, he couldn’t possibly defend himself against her. He was _helpless_ again and there was _nothing_ he could do about it.

She groaned, shifting as she sleepily pushed herself up. _Shit_ , he’d woken her up, he was screwed, wasn’t he? She was never happy when someone woke her. “Luke?” she said, voice still filled with sleepiness.

Snatcher flinched and back pedaled until he hit the wall. He pressed his hands over his mouth to stifle his suddenly too loud breathing. His heart was pounding too and honestly he didn’t like how it felt. Being alive was no longer something he wanted to be.

Vanessa shifted and pawed at where he’d been lying on the bed, clearly noting his absence. He stayed frozen, back pressed against the wall, hands pressed over his mouth hard enough that he could barely even breath through his nose. The door was on the other side of the room, past the bed and past Vanessa. He didn’t dare run for it, she’d catch him for sure. Maybe if he stayed quiet and still, she’d just go back to sleep and then he could sneak out and figure out what was going on and hopefully fix it.

That didn’t happen though. Instead she sat all the way up and reached over to the nightstand to switch on a magic fueled lantern, flooding the room with light. It hurt his dumb mortal eyes enough to make him flinch and close them instinctively. _Ugh_!

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

He forced open his eyes again to see Vanessa had gotten out of bed and stepped closer to him. Except her hair was red instead of blonde and her face was the Florist’s. … It wasn’t Vanessa.

Suddenly weak at the knees, Snatcher took his hands off his mouth at last. “Madeline! You’re alive!” He never thought he’d see her again. He _almost_ wanted to hug her and might’ve if she’d been in immediate reach. “I guess that makes sense though, huh? Since _I’m_ alive too.” And _not_ in the cellar.

“Yep,” she said. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“Uh well… in way I guess you could say I did.” The whole thing with Vanessa had certainly been a nightmare. And whatever this situation was, was also a bit nightmarish in its own unique way. “Why were we sleeping in the same bed though?” If Vanessa found out, he’d end up in the cellar again.

Madeline raised an eyebrow. “Uh… we’ve been sleeping in the same bed ever since we got married. So is this a prank or… Are you okay?” She suddenly looked worried again.

“What do you mean… ‘married’?” He’d never liked her like that no matter what Vanessa had claimed. Like a _fool_ he’d only had eyes for Vanessa. And well… “What the peck is going on here?”

“I’d like to know that too. So I need you to tell me what’s wrong so I can help.” She was patient, kind, and _worried_ about him like she always was. She’d been his only friend after Vanessa had driven everyone else away, isolated him by making him believe that no one else loved him. “So, Luke honey, why don’t you come over and sit on the bed and we can talk, okay? Or not, whatever you need.”

Snatcher couldn’t help but flinch a little at the name, only Vanessa had ever called him that. “ _Don’t_ call me that.” His voice was far harsher than he’d intended it to be, making her flinch a little.

As always, she didn’t get mad back though, she was a _saint_. “What? ‘Luke’ or ‘honey’? Because I call you both all the time.”

“Both.” He wanted to be called ‘Snatcher’ but he couldn’t ask that of her, could he? So… “Just… don’t call me anything. If you _must_ refer to me by name, ‘Lukas’ is fine.”

“All right Lukas, could you please sit down now and tell me what’s wrong because you’re really scaring me right now.” She _looked_ scared too _for him_. Ugh.

He could trust her though, right? He’d vented to her about Vanessa plenty of times and it had never gotten back to the manor. And she was his friend. _And_ maybe explaining things might help him figure out what happened? It had something to do with the Time Piece for sure. Which now that he was starting to calm down some, he could still feel its power inside him. He wasn’t sure how to activate it though and scared to try because last time it had activated, probably upon the physical components of it being destroyed, he’d ended up here.

“Time shenanigans,” he finally said, looking back up at Madeline. He wasn’t going to go over there to sit down though because he didn’t want to. “That has to be it, I think. I swallowed a Time Piece and suddenly I’m here.”

Madeline sat down on the edge of the bed. “What does that mean?”

“Time Pieces are basically magic hourglasses. They can be used to travel though time and other things. I wasn’t able to study them for long enough to find out. So… this is an alternate timeline perhaps? That’s the only thing that makes sense, right?”

“No, nothing you’re saying makes sense. I’d question if you’re on drugs but I know you’re not. But… you’re claiming you’re from an alternate timeline, correct?” Naturally she was having obvious trouble believing that.

“Yep.”

“And you got here by _eating_ a magic hourglass?”

“Yep.”

“A whole _hourglass_? How and more importantly why?”

Snatcher shrugged. “It’s complicated.” No way was he going to admit to eating it to avoid having a child take it from him by force. “But I woke up here pretty much _right_ after I swallowed it so it’s the only thing that could’ve brought me here. And an alternate timeline is only thing I can think of that would explain this because things aren’t supposed to be like this, even in the past. You can believe or not, I don’t care.” He did have to find a way to fix it though.

How likely was it with how screwy this alternate timeline was that Hat Kid would be around? He couldn’t know but she’d be the one he’d want to ask about this because she was most likely to know how to fix it. His only other option would be to figure out how to activate the Time Piece’s power inside him and _pray_ it brought him back to his world. A risk for sure, especially considering if there was a time line in which he was married to the Florist, there was probably one where he’d ended up actually marrying Vanessa. … There was probably also one where Moonjumper never came and she kept him alive the cellar for who knows how long and possibly even trapped his powerless ghost down there until he faded. … Welp, he suddenly felt like he wanted to vomit so he wasn’t going to consider _that_ possible timeline _ever_ again.

“All right,” Madeline said after taking a deep breath. “You sound like you believe that and I don’t think you’d pull a prank like this so… what kind of time line do you come form?”

“Uh… one where we were just friends.”

She frowned at him. “Is there a reason for the past tense?”

Yep, it was in the past, she’d died. He’d become a ghost, while she hadn’t – as far as he knew anyway, Vanessa could’ve destroyed her ghost as soon as it formed. He couldn’t tell her that though, could he? Damn, he was soft, huh? She was his old friend though so… it made sense, he’d been _much_ softer and weaker in those days. He’d never had to let go of that with her because she’d been only a memory. So… “Nah, don’t worry about it. We’re good friends still, I just haven’t seen in her in a while.”

If Madeline caught on or suspected the lie she didn’t show it right now. Instead she fidgeted nervously. “Um… what about _my_ Lukas? What happened to him? Did he switch with you or… did you replace him?”

Snatcher opened his mouth to reply but paused. “I uh… don’t know.” On one hand, switching with him would be awful because who knows what that Lukas would do in Snatcher’s timeline, what secrets he might reveal that people did _not_ need to know. But replacing him wouldn’t be good either because what if when Snatcher figured out how to fix this, he was gone for good? Madeline obviously cared about him, she’d _married_ him for peck’s sake, Snatcher would feel bad taking him away from her. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, don’t worry about it. I’ll fix this and then everything will go back to normal for both of us.” Hopefully.

She looked at him, her expression mirroring his own uncertainties about that. “How you are going to fix it then?”

“I’m not sure yet. There’s someone I want to talk who might know. I don’t know if she’ll be here though so… I might just have to figure it out by myself.” No matter what though he was going to figure it out because he did _not_ want to be here.

He’d only been alive again for a little while and he already hated it; his heartbeat and the breathing thing but _mostly_ because he didn’t have any power other than the Time Piece’s and that was _unacceptable_. He couldn’t defend himself like this or shift to make his form bigger to make him feel more powerful too. So if he couldn’t find Hat Kid in this pecked up timeline, he’d have to figure out how to activate the Time Piece again and risk where it might take him this time if not home. Considering the possibilities, he _really_ didn’t want to do that so _hopefully_ this timeline was messed up enough that Hat Kid would be here somewhere he could find her. And if so, hopefully she’d be willing to help him.


	24. Trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt request thing: Snatcher lets Hat Kid work some of the traps in subcon using the shadow puppet costume (maybe even setting some of her own?) Also, question: do you think Hat Kid can eat souls?

It was finally time, there was finally a new intruder in the forest, headed down the path towards the trap Hat Kid had step up with Snatcher’s help. She hid in the bushes, waiting and watching, particularly vibrating with anticipation. Snatcher was behind her somewhere, hidden in the forest. He’d agreed to do the magic bits and make it look like she was doing them. If he made her look like a fool, she was going to be _so_ mad and _would_ find a way to get revenge.

It seemed to take forever before the Mafia goon came into view. Good! A bad guy, Hat Kid wouldn’t feel bad about making him sign his soul away with a contract. He looked frightened, glancing all around as he meandered down the path towards his doom. Hat Kid was tempted to jump out at him now and scare him but Snatcher had said the traps made things scarier which was why he used them. And having been caught in one, she couldn’t deny the truth of that. So she bided her time until…

The goon stepped on the trap, triggering it. He let out an undignified yelp as he was dragged up into the net, to dangle several feet off the ground. He hung still for a moment before starting to thrash. Grinning wide, Hat Kid ran over to stand in front of the net.

Snatcher poked his head out from behind a tree to give her a silent ‘are you ready’ look. She nodded and gave him a thumbs up; she was _so_ ready for this. What she _wasn’t_ ready for though was for her feet to suddenly leave the ground as she was lifted up into the air by _nothing_. She glanced back at Snatcher was who was grinning, apparently pleased with his little surprise. But of course it was him, he could levitate things; how come she had never realized he could probably levitate people too?

She stopped rising when she was a little more than double her height off the ground. … She’d be looking down at the Mafia goon from here which was genius actually. So she let herself relax, trusting Snatcher to keep her aloft.

Next, as discussed, he transferred the three of them to his pocket dimension, disguising himself completely in the purple mist. Free of the net, the Mafia goon land with a thud, face first on the ground.

“AHAHAHAHA FOOOOOOOL!” Hat Kid shouted in her best impression of Snatcher as the goon struggled to push himself back to his feet. “You’ve made a terrible mistake, haven’t you?” She trailed off with the creepy giggle Snatcher had instructed her on, doing the evil grin to match.

The Mafia goon flinched. “Ah! Only thing scarier than big ghost is little ghost girl!” He turned and tried to run. This being Snatcher’s domain though, he didn’t get far, or anywhere really, he was running in place.

It was funny enough to make Hat Kid want to laugh. She turned it into another creepy giggle instead. “You can’t get away. You were doomed the moment you set foot into the forest.” Why _anyone_ would was beyond her. She’d been around, everyone knew about Snatcher and what he did to people who entered his forest. Why would people risk that? Really with how dumb they were, they kind of deserved their fate.

With a sob, the Mafia goon gave up running away. He turned back to face her and fell to his knees – the vantage point Snatcher’s levitating gave her made this sight _so_ much better, she felt _powerful_ and in charge. “Mafia sorry, please don’t hurt Mafia. I was only looking for way back home.” The idiot had been lost and thought going into Subcon Forest was a possible way to get back home. How could anyone be that stupid? Well Hat Kid now had a definite answer about the least intelligent, intelligent lifeform she’d ever encountered.

“Hmm…” She lifted a hand to examine her ghostly nails, doing her best to put on an air of indifference. “Normally I’d just eat your soul and be done with it _but_ you’re in luck. There are a couple things that need tidying up around the forest, if you agree to do them for me I’ll let you live.”

“Uh… yes, anything you want little ghost girl just have mercy.”

“Very good. Just sign right here and we’ll be in business.” Hat Kid snapped her fingers and the pre-written contract and quill appeared in the air between them. Wow, Snatcher really was doing everything he’d said he’d do. She was proud of him and would have to give him a hug later.

Trembling, the Mafia goon signed. He didn’t even pause to read the terms and conditions before doing so, just the large text stuff. Which was just dumb… even if Hat Kid had done the exact same thing. She had an excuse though, she’d still been new to the language back then and couldn’t read it well yet _and_ she was just a kid. An adult should know better. Tough it didn’t really matter, did it? He’d be forced to sign it regardless.

As soon as the goon put down the quill both it and the contract vanished in a theatrical puff of purple smoke. A second later, his soul left his body, going to Snatcher but with some magic trickery, it looked like it flew towards Hat Kid.

She grinned, holding the fake soul hovering in her hand. “I’ll need to take your soul for safe keeping of course, can’t have you going back on your word.”

The goon whimpered but nodded.

“Good now get to it, the well won’t fix itself.”

He vanished, dropped from the pocket dimension presumably back onto the path. Then the fake soul in her hand vanished too along with the levitation magic keeping her afloat.

She let out a surprised squeak as she hit the floor of the pocket dimension. “Hey,” she said, frowning at Snatcher as he came out of seemingly nowhere.

He grinned at her. “You should be happy I didn’t drop you before now. I thought about it. The Mafia goon’s reaction probably would’ve been funny.”

Hat Kid pushed herself back to her feet. She wasn’t going to respond to the bait though so… “How’d I do?”

“Your expression and demeanor slipped a few times. And starting off copying me wasn’t your best idea. Your voice isn’t loud enough and doesn’t carry enough weight for that to work, it was far closer to being cute than scary. Also, you were very stiff and unnatural with the way you floated. Though I supposed that one isn’t entirely your fault, it was your first time being levitated. So I suppose I can forgave that one. Overall though, if I were to give you a grade it’d probably be a B minus.”

“Is that good?”

Snatcher sighed. “Yes, it’s good, especially since you’ve never done anything like that before. And your target was too stupid to even notice so it didn’t really matter.”

“Awesome! Thank you for letting me and helping with it so much. It was a lot of fun.” She liked being scary and if either of the directors ever had a horror movie idea, she’d be _so_ down to play the part of the monster.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. It should get you to stop pestering me about playing with you for a while at least. Though, next time I talk to that guy I’m going to have to pretend to be you, which sucks.”

“What if I do it though? Like the whole thing. Get him to do everything that needs to be done and then beat him up in the arena as a show for all the Subconites. I’ll even be flashy and dramatic as possible. So can I _please_?”

“Ugh… fine, I guess. But you better not pester me to play games with you for _at least_ a month after this, okay?” He gave her a pointed look.

“Yes, okay, deal.” It was worth it. This was going to be _so much_ fun.


	25. Pets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thevalkyriewarrior: Well now I have to request a drabble where Hat Kid learns about bush cat, saves it, and reunites Snatcher with his cat.

Drunk Snatcher had been fun until Hat Kid had asked him if he’d ever had any pets. The answer was yes; back when he was alive, he’d had a beloved kitty named Lucky who’d vanished under mysterious circumstances. In hindsight, Vanessa was the suspected culprit especially since a stray cat he’d adopted had had a similar fate. After dying though, he’d had various animals, mostly cats but a couple dogs and even a parrot! Which had all been fun to hear about until he’d brought up his latest pet; a bushcat named Morgana who was too adventurous for his own good and had ended up disappearing somewhere around Vanessa’s Manor.

Too drunk to care about his image, Snatcher had been openly emotionally distraught about it. His poor kitty was probably frozen, the worst way to die, according to him. He’d been inconsolable and so drunk he could barely even be understood. Unable to comfort him, Hat Kid had eventually just left him curled up in a drunken stupor in his big reading hollow. He’d been too out of it to even notice her leaving.

That’s what brought her sneaking back to the manor. She was pretty sure she’d seen a frozen bushcat when she’d been in there last time. It _had_ to be Snatcher’s kitty Morgana, right? Poor thing. She might not be able to do anything for him but there was something she could try that _might_ work. He was her BFF and because of Bow she’d grown to love cats so she was going to try it. First, she had to get the cat though.

Just like last time, the doors to the cellar were unlocked, allowing her easy entry. She crept in, closing the door behind her.

In the cellar, she paused by the wall with dangling rusty chains hanging off it. Looking it with the dweller’s mask activated would reveal the outline of person who’d been chained there many, many years ago. She _wasn’t_ going to do that this time though because unlike the first time she’d been down here, she now knew the story behind that wall and its imprint. So now it just made her feel… uncomfortable.

After a couple seconds, she shook it off and ran off towards the stairs. At the top, she stopped to press her ear to the door and listened. … There was silence on the other side. Which didn’t mean Vanessa wasn’t there, she’d certainly surprised Hat Kid with her sudden presence last time. There was no way to know for sure if the coast was clear though so… she opened the door a bit and poked her head out.

She glanced side to side and… no Vanessa but she did spot the frozen bushcat. It was right by the frozen over front door. After one more glance down the hall the other way, Hat Kid stepped out and jogged over to it, as fast as she could go without using her hats – there had to be a reason Snatcher had included ‘no hat abilities’ as part of his contract about the manor, now wasn’t the time to learn what that reason might be especially since it had been important enough that he’d sent a Subconite down to remind her of it so it _had_ to be bad.

Morgana, the bushcat, looked like he’d been hissing when he’d suffered the unfortunate fate of being frozen. His back was arched, the leaves on it standing up, his tail up and puffed out. Poor thing! Touching him made her regret not wearing gloves because he was _freezing_! Too late to do anything about it now though, she’d just have to suck it up.

She carefully scooped up and ran back down the hall to the cellar door. Down the stairs she went, around and back up and outside. Wow, a quick and clean getaway, that was new. Vanessa should’ve appeared solely to add drama and make a more exciting story with higher stakes. But apparently today’s adventure wasn’t to be the perilous kind. The focus was on saving the bushcat cat anyway though so it was fine.

Shivering, Hat Kid banished those thoughts and pulled out her phone to beam herself and the frozen Morgana back up to the ship. In her room, she placed Morgana on her desk, pushing stuff off to make room for him. Then, using the sprint bow Snatcher had made for her, she ran out and to the central room, up the ladder and to the Time Piece vault. She grabbed five and ran back to her room.

Using them like this wasn’t allowed, for good reason too. But she was a professional and it was just one cat so it would probably be fine. Besides, reversing time for one small thing was less dangerous than proper time travel, everyone knew that so it wasn’t even _that_ big of a rule she was breaking. And if no one ever found out she wouldn’t get in trouble. … She could probably tell Bow though because Bow would _totally_ advocate for using the Time Pieces inappropriately if it meant bringing a kittycat back to life.

***

Snatcher had never been blackout drunk before. He’d always made a point not to because being drunk interfered with his studies. So he’d never been more than mildly hungover before. _Now_ though, it was like he was making up for the last three hundred plus years of not drinking in one go.

His head hurt and he felt _sick_. He didn’t even have a stomach, how could he feel sick? Party of him wanted to go back to the blissful alcohol fueled oblivion his mind had arisen from a few hours ago. It had _almost_ been like sleeping. Too bad the end result was _this_.

What had even _happened_ yesterday? Hat Kid had showed up at some point after he’d started singing. They’d eventually ended up watching a movie… two movies? He didn’t really remember for sure. He’d _undoubtedly_ embarrassed himself though because he’d always been a chatty and often emotional drunk. So _hopefully_ Hat Kid wouldn’t show up today, or anytime soon but _especially_ today. If she did, he might have to…

“Snatcher!”

Speak of the devil. He turned his head to see her standing in the door of his hollow. He hadn’t noticed her approach because he was feeling too miserable to pay much attention to his surroundings.

“You feeling okay? Can ghosts get hungover?” she asked.

He hadn’t thought so before but… “Yes.”

“Oof. Is there anything I can do to help? Like get you a glass or water or something? I heard eating toast helps. I’ve never been hungover though so I don’t know.”

“Leave me alone.” He was not in the mood for this. If only he had a bed he could lie down in. Ugh.

“Hmm… normally I would _but_ I have something important to show you. And it _should_ make you feel better so…”

“No, kid, please no. Not right now.” He couldn’t handle her antics right now. “Please leave me alone.”

She pulled out her phone. Good, that meant she was going to beam herself back up to her ship and then he’d be… She beamed him up too, putting them in her room.

He groaned. Before he could scold her or _beg_ her to leave him the alone, he didn’t know which, a loud meow filled the room, coming from under the pillow pile. It wasn’t just any meow either, it was the distinct meow of a bushcat; a rare breed. He twisted around to watch it scramble out of the pile and… run towards him.

It wasn’t just any old bushcat, it was _Morgana_! How was the even _possible_? He’d disappeared somewhere around the manor, months ago now, which meant he’d probably been caught by Vanessa, resulting in a gruesome fate. But… apparently not?

Snatcher picked him up of course, lifting him to cradle against his chest. He started purring as Snatcher pet him, even nuzzling his mane a little. It was a dream come true.

He turned back to face Hat Kid who was smiling at him. “This is my cat. Where’d you find him?”

“Uh… the manor, where you said he’d be,” she replied. He didn’t remember saying anything about him to her but well, he’d just been black out drunk for a while so that probably explained it. “He was hiding in the cellar, living off rats and mice, too scared to come out and he can’t open the cellar doors so he was trapped. I saved him though and brought him back to you. That’s my important surprise.”

Something about that didn’t seem quite right but… Snatcher wasn’t going to question it right now. “Uh… thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help. Feel free to chill with him in the pillow pool until your hangover fades.”

Snatcher grunted in response instead of saying another ‘thank you’. He was totally going to take her up on that offer though. He could use it and… well, he’d thought Morgana dead by Vanessa’s hand, he needed some time to adjust to that not being the case and just cuddle his beloved pet for a while.


	26. Boss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt request thing: shortly after Snatcher makes his contracts with the Subconites and finishes making them new bodies, they decide as a group they want to do something to acknowledge him as their leader. A crown would probably fall off his head, he doesn't wear clothes, and they're not great at making things yet (new bodies)... long story short, he gets a medallion that is a crude disk of wood with 'Boss' carved on it hanging off of a piece of rope. Because he is their boss.

The Subconites were up to something and had been for a few days now. They were muttering amongst themselves, cutting off whenever he got near, and grouping up to work on something. It wasn’t any of Snatcher’s business though so he left them to it.

He was _pretty_ sure they wouldn’t betray him after everything he’d done for them. And if they did, all the power he’d gained from that deal with Moonjumper meant they wouldn’t be a threat to him if they tried to. So, he ignored it. Now that he was no longer spending all day every day sewing dolls or creating housing for the Subconites in the trees, he could actually relax again. He intended to take full advantage of that opportunity.

Except not even an hour after he’d settled down with a book – he’d even found a way to use magic to make it bigger to suit the larger form he’d chosen to hide his previous identity as the Prince – one of the Subconites approached him.

“Boss?” they said.

Snatcher held back a sigh and put on a smile as he lowered his book. “Yes?” They were his subjects, he had to give them what they needed even if he was mentally exhausted.

“Uh… sorry to bother you but we have something to give you in the village if that’s okay.”

Well at least it wasn’t a request for more modifications to be made to their bodies or new houses. So, Snatcher put his book down and followed the Subconite out and to the recently dubbed Subcon Village.

All the Subconites had gathered outside for whatever this was and watched as Snatcher approached. It honestly made him a bit nervous. He’d gotten rid of all the wretched snow and ice in the forest, made them semi-durable bodies – the best he could – and given them housing in a nice little clearing by a pond. What if they now saw no further use for him and thus wanted to be rid of him? After all Vanessa had betrayed him and she’d been the love of his life. So, despite _everything_ he’d done for them, the Subconites could still have gathered here to…

“Thank you, Boss,” all the Subconites said in unison, trialing off into a bit of a cheer with it.

A small group up front had gotten out a box and presented it to him. It was made of wood, presumably some of the wood carved out to make the hollow tree homes because they had plenty of it around. Still a tad nervous, he accepted it and pulled out the thing inside.

It was a disk of more wood with a hole carved through the top which a rope had been threaded through and then tied in a knot. On the other side of the disc the word ‘BOSS’ was carved in large slightly uneven letters.

“We wanted to do something to thank you,” the Subconite who’d brought him here said. “We weren’t sure what to do, in part because we’re very limited in what we _can_ do, but uh… I suggested maybe a medallion because it shouldn’t be too hard to make one. That’s why I was voted as spokesperson for this. And um… just you’ve done so much for us even though you didn’t have to and don’t even have any relation to the kingdom or anything. So uh… we just want you to know that you’re the best boss ever and we’re all glad to be your followers.”

And here Snatcher had been worried about possibly being betrayed. This was _so much_ better. “Thank you.” He smiled at Subconites, a genuine one this time. “I’m glad you guys are such good minions.”

Another cheer rose up among them, warming his cold dead heart. He was going to have to find a good place to hang the medallion. Hmm… perhaps somewhere in that secret library he was thinking about possibly constructing soon.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I saw your art of mustache girl making fun of snatcher, and boy could hear the insults flying back and forth and then I thought of a prompt, so heres the request: Snacther is trying to force mustache girl to drink an ex potion for his death wish however mustache girl isn’t having any of it even after he threatens to take her soul, instead she immediately starts name calling him things like dork, weakling, noodle, etc. just for needing help to kill hat kid.

“You seriously need help killing Hat Kid?” Mu said as she looked up from the contract. She glared up at Snatcher, still seemingly unafraid even though she had to know what was at stake by now. “You came _all_ the way out here to the island and found my cave for _that_? Really?”

“I don’t need help killing her, I just want to kill her in a creative way. It’s more fun that way.” He did his best evil grin that normally made people nervous if not scared. It didn’t seem to work on her though.

“Yeah, right. You tried to kill her on your own and _failed_ , just like everyone else. And now you’re trying this stupid EX potion thing to do it instead. I doubt it’ll even work.”

Snatcher didn’t have time for this. He was trying to get the fight started now. He even had Hat Kid _waiting_ for it, too eager for her own good. “Just sign the contract and drink the potion, it’s not hard.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“I’ll eat your soul.”

“I don’t think you would. You need me because you want me to do the thing with Hat Kid. You’re a weak-ass noodle who can’t even beat an umbrella wielding child in combat. I’ve seen real pasta that’s more intimidating than you.”

Snatcher’s eye twitched. He was half tempted to blast Mu into bits, splatter her insides all of the walls of her stupid cave home. If he didn’t need her for something, he might’ve very well done so regardless of the fact she was a kid. So, she was right, he needed her for the thing with Hat Kid and she was fortunate for that.

“If I recall correctly, you couldn’t beat her either,” he said instead. “You hit her maybe what _twice_ on your own? Pathetic!”

“Yeah, but I’m just a kid too. You’re supposed to be a big bad unstoppable monster. People tell horror stories about you and your dumb cliché forest all the time. So you _should’ve_ been able to kill a child. But you _can’t_ because you’re too weak and soft. Face it, you’re pathetic. You can’t do anything right, you’re just a worthless noodle with a…”

With an annoyed snarl, Snatcher swooped down to grab her by the cape and yank up into air. _No one_ got away with saying that kind of thing to him. He had power, tons of it. He was no longer weak, pathetic, or worthless and he _refused_ to tolerate being called such.

“You’re not going hurt me, I’m not scared you,” Mu said with a huff as she crossed her arms. She _was_ scared though; he could hear it in her voice underneath the false bravado. “Bloody dumb noodle ghost. I’m more intimated by Casper the Friendly…”

Snatcher summoned the EX potion he’d brewed a few hours ago to float in front of Mu’s face. He then forced the flask’s opening into her mouth, shutting her up at last. He titled it, forcing her to either drink the rainbow-hued EX potion or choke on it. Which it was, he _really_ didn’t care anymore.

She sputtered and pawed at the flask, trying to push it away. It was a vain effort though and he just pushed it deeper in her mouth as far as it could go without hurting her. She whimpered but she seemed to be drinking it. When it was all gone, he finally let her push the flask away.

Breathing heavy, she gave him a hate filled look. “I hate you.”

“Good because you should. Let’s go to the arena now, shall we?”

By the time, he had a recreated version of her throne room inside his pocket dimension, her mind was gone. She hung limp now but that would soon change. He quickly placed her on throne and left to get Hat Kid. This would be a fun fight to watch and for once, he might even root for Hat Kid.


	28. 'Chat'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The-malwere: If the drabble event is still going may I request MJ using his power to control snatcher and fight hat kid?

“Greetings Lukas.”

With an annoyed sighed, Snatcher looked up from the trap he’d just started setting to see Moonjumper floating in front of him. It had been a while since Moonjumper had last shown up to cause trouble or be a nuisance so this wasn’t a surprise. If anything, it was surprising he hadn’t shown up sooner. Why couldn’t he have continued to stay away though?

“What do you want?” Snatcher asked, crossing his arms and frowning.

“No need to look at me like that, I’m just here to chat.” Yeah right, as annoying as talking to him could be, it wasn’t annoying enough for him, he wanted to be as big a pain as was possible. “You and Hat Kid seem to be getting along rather splendidly lately. Those Death Wish contracts you did with her were a joy to watch. I bet you’re real proud of her for completing all of them.”

That was a while ago now, long enough that Snatcher could admit that he _was_ proud of her for excelling at them. He could admit it to himself anyway, not to anyone else, especially Moonjumper. “I’m surprised you haven’t tried to recruit her to your cause to cause trouble for me.”

“I uh… was napping when she showed up. Having missed my opportunity to make a grand entrance as she first stepped first into our lovely haunted forest, I decided to let it go and just watch. And I’m _glad_ I did because without my interference, your relationship with her has blossomed into something quite adorable. You always wanted a kid and now you finally have one, it just took you three hundred years. You should adopt her. You have the legal power and knowledge to write adoption papers and she seems to be an orphan so it would be a good move for both of you.”

“No, absolutely not. I don’t want a kid anymore and I certainly don’t want to adopt her. She’s almost as much of a nuisance as you are.” But at least she was a nuisance with good intentions most of the time, making her not quite as bad.

“Aw but Lukas dear, you’re…

“No. I’m done talking to you.” Snatcher turned away and resumed setting up the trap. It was the one on the main path and therefore one of the most important ones. Too bad the traps didn’t work on Moonjumper, it’d be nice to see him strung up in a net, helpless to get himself out. Seriously, suggesting Snatcher adopt Hat Kid was just absurd. Snatcher didn’t even…

A large web of magical string fell on him, constricting in an instant. It burned as the strands pressed into his form, cutting into him and sinking in, leaving behind a faint mark but nothing more. He tried to blast it away but it was too late. He couldn’t even shift into his pocket dimension to escape it. It had rendered him powerless in seconds. He couldn’t even physically move himself anymore.

“It’s way to easy to get you to let your guard down,” Moonjumper with a sickening amount of smug satisfaction in his voice. “You honestly believed I came down here solely to discuss Hat Kid. I’m almost a bit offended you didn’t except more from me.”

Snatcher _had_ though, he’d just… gotten distracted and annoyed. Which had been the _point_ , to get him thinking about something else and to turn his back on Moonjumper. And now it was too late. He was completely in Moonjumper’s control, unable to even scream because part of him wanted to. This kind of thing, being powerless and helpless to change that, wasn’t supposed to happen to him anymore. He was the ruler of Subcon Forest, _no one_ was supposed to be able control him anymore or _chain_ him or _anything_.

Moonjumper yanked him back up and made his arms wave around a bit while twirling him. Being magic, the strings coming from Moonjumper’s hands didn’t tangle. The sensation of moving without wanting to was a sickening one. When Moonjumper pulled on his magic to summon a couple blasts was even worse. Resisting only made it feel worse, in part because it didn’t do anything more than delay the action by a second or two at most.

“You know,” Moonjumper said as he stopped twirling Snatcher at last, “one your flaws in combat is making yourself too large. There’s an awful lot of space to hit. Let’s fix that, shall we?”

The strings pulled on Snatcher’s magic again and suddenly his form was changing against his will. Fighting it slowed the process a bit but not by much, he soon had the shape his body had been in while he was alive. He _hated_ it more anything which was undoubtedly why Moonjumper had done it.

“There you go, Lukas, that’s much better don’t you think?” Moonjumper giggled. As soon as Snatcher was free he was going to _pay_ dearly for this. “Now, lets go find Hat Kid. I’m sure she’d _love_ a visit from her BFF. And with my help, you might actually be able to beat her. It’s worth a try anyway, don’t you think?”

The strings made Snatcher nod. It was true though, Moonjumper with Snatcher’s magic at his disposal had a decent chance at beating Hat Kid. Hopefully he wouldn’t though. So, even though he never would’ve thought he’d ever do such a thing, Snatcher was cheering for Hat Kid to win.


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For that one drabble event I'm not sure if you were the one that once wrote a sentence in a fic that stated that Snatcher gets super clingy when it snows too much, but i'd like to see that

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't follow the prompt 100% because I feel Snatcher would be more prone to grumpiness and keeping to himself whenever it snowed a lot.

It was snowing. Which honestly made perfect sense, it was the right time of year for it. It always snowed in the forest once winter set in. But… Snatcher still found himself scowling at it as it drifted down from the clouds above. It was sticking to the ground too, forming a pristine layer of white powder over everything. It was bound to get worse too, this place would practically be a winter wonderland in a matter of hours.

This time _last_ year, Snatcher had been alive and had thought the snow pretty and serene. He’d had no idea that in just a few short months, he’d have a very good reason to hate the snow, along with everyone else in the kingdom. But here he was, _hating_ it… part of him even feared it a little because what if it brought Vanessa out of the manor? So far she’d seemed content to stay in her frozen manor but that could change and this might be the thing that changed it.

He couldn’t do anything if she didn’t come out though and so far, she wasn’t. So… he’d just do his best to stay alert and be ready to fight her off if he needed to. In the meantime, he’d just go back into hollow and…

“Boss!”

He turned his head to see a large group of Subconites running up to him. They were clearly just as unhappy about the reminder that snow and ice were natural phenomenon that occurred in this part of the world every year as Snatcher was.

“Is it… _her_?” One of them asked. “Or is it normal?” Another added. “It’s that time of year, right?” “But does this mean she’s going to come out and…”

“It’s perfectly normal,” Snatcher interrupted. “And it’s totally fine. She’s still in the manor and if she comes out, I’ll get rid of her.” He hid his own doubts and fears with a grin and a dismissive handwave. They didn’t know he had more of a past with Vanessa than even they did and he was going to keep it that way. “So, there’s no need to worry or freak out about this.”

The Subconites shuffled nervously, glancing around as the snow continued to fall and slowly start to pile up. Because they were possessing bodies, they probably felt the cold a bit more keenly than Snatcher did, probably not by much though. All of them were dead, the cold wasn’t a threat and wouldn’t have even been a bother if not for how they’d all died. That didn’t make the little cold they all did feel or the sight of snow and ice much better though. So…

“I have an idea to possibly soothe your worries though,” Snatcher continued. “Follow me.”

He led them back towards Subcon Village and then past it to the arena area they’d just finished building a couple weeks ago. Its main purpose was the cauldron in the middle that Snatcher could brew potions in. He had a few other ideas for what he might one day use it for but right now, that was it.

Snow was of course, building up around it too but with a bit of magic, Snatcher got the cauldron boiling again. Its warmth wasn’t much at first but it soon built and spread, warming the stone around it and melting the snow. The outer edges of the arena still had snow but it was better than nothing. Snatcher would have to improve this later so he could warm the whole area.

“Better?” he asked with a grin as he placed himself in the boiling cauldron, coiling part of his tail up at the bottom of it. It was hot enough for even him to feel it distinctly, making it quite nice.

The Subconites nodded and murmured ‘thank you’s and agreement. They then settled down, clearly much more relaxed already. The rest of the Subconites were probably displeased too so Snatcher summoned them, his first time using that particular magic on such a large scale. They were all surprised but quickly calmed down and settled around the cauldron too, grateful to be away from the snow as much as was possible.

This maybe wasn’t the best thing to do. Snatcher should maybe force them to tough it out, himself too. It was just winter after all, they’d have to deal with snow like this every year, multiple times throughout the entirety of winter. So just dealing with it until they’d all gotten over their fear of the snow and ice might’ve been smart but… it was the first winter after the Big Freeze, surely, they deserved a little bit of slack. So… Snatcher would get over his fear later and would help the Subconites do so too. For now though, he’d keep them all as safe from the snow and ice as he could.


	30. Red Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> krekka01: Hi again! Firstly, thank you so much for doing these prompts for me and everyone else. Anyway, for a prompt: Hat Kid puts the fear of death back into the Snatcher (or Moonjumper) by involuntarily channeling the pure terror of Queen Vanessa (not her ice powers, mind you). Perhaps her eyes flash red for a brief moment to cow either specters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I experimented with this one by referring to Snatcher as ‘Lukas’ when writing from Moonjumper’s POV because that’s what Moonjumper thinks of him as.

Lukas had just beaten back Vanessa again, meaning now would be the perfect time to bother him while he was still tired from the fight. Moonjumper waited until he’d _just_ gotten comfortable in his large reading hollow before exiting the horizon.

“Hey Lukas,” he said with a grin. “You just had another fight with your ex, huh? How unfortunate.”

Lukas groaned, making it almost a growl. “What do you want?”

To ease the boredom of being an immortal being by bothering Lukas for a bit. “Just to chat.”

“Yeah, because _last_ time you came down for a chat, that’s all it was.” Of course he was still mad about that, he liked holding grudges even if Moonjumper hadn’t _actually_ done anything too bad. No real harm had befallen anyone even though Moonjumper could’ve easily caused great harm to tons of people. “I’m _not_ falling for that again so don’t even try it.”

Moonjumper probably could get him to fall for a similar trick again if he really tried. Lukas wasn’t the most levelheaded of people, he tended to overreact to things, making him easy to manipulate. Lucky for him, that’s not what Moonjumper was planning this time. He really was just here to be a nuisance for a bit. So…

“What do you think Vanessa might do to you should she ever win one of your battles?” he asked. “Do you think she’d chain you back up in the cellar?”

Lukas flinched a little, barely noticeable, grimacing. It wasn’t something Moonjumper wanted to think about either. He was deathly afraid of the cellar and Vanessa too. It was illogical, she could do literally nothing to him, but Lukas’ emotions while alive bled into him, especially those he’d felt towards the end of his life. Which was why Moonjumper knew to bring it up; Lukas was good at controlling his reaction but internally there probably wasn’t a worse possibility he could think of.

“Or do you perhaps think she’d do something else?” Moonjumper continued. “Regardless, I do believe it would involve being frozen solid, she likes doing that kind of thing to people. Maybe she’d take you up to her room and…”

“Hey!”

Moonjumper snapped his head to the side to see Hat Kid standing in the doorway, glaring daggers at him.

“You leave him alone,” she shouted, pointing at him. And… it may have been a trick of the light, probably was, but it looked like her eyes flashed red for a brief moment, making Moonjumper instinctively flinch. He half expected her to add ‘because he’s mine,’ because that’s what Vanessa always followed with whenever she yelled at someone – girls – for chatting with Lukas. Thankfully she didn’t. “Get the peck out of here, you big meanie.”

Regardless, Moonjumper suddenly didn’t want to be here anymore. So he forced a nonchalant grin. “Well the young one has spoken, ‘tis time for me to ‘get the peck out of here’ and bid you adieu dear Lukas.” He gave Lukas a slight bow before shifting back into the horizon.

***

Snatcher frowned at the empty spot Moonjumper had just vacated. “I don’t need you to defend me, kid,” he said, turning his attention to her. Especially like _that_. Her eyes hadn’t _actually_ flashed red, had they?

“Well,” she said as she stepped in all the way into the room. She was seemingly totally unaware of what she’d just done. “ _last_ time I saw you two in the same place, he was controlling you like a puppet. So, I think I was justified in stepping in to defend you, just in case he tried to do that again. Besides, he was being mean. I’m not going to just sit back while someone says means things about my BFF.”

“Fine, whatever.” Honestly, Snatcher was grateful for it because it had gotten Moonjumper to leave. Why, he didn’t know, nor did he care because otherwise Moonjumper would’ve stuck around, being annoying no matter what Snatcher said or did until he’d had his fill of it.

“But now that he’s gone, you want to play a game?”

Maybe Moonjumper would stay away longer if he hung out with her and he kind of owed her even if she had just spooked him with her uncanny callback to Vanessa so… “Sure, I guess, as long as it’s a board game.” He was _not_ in the mood to run around playing tag or whatever it was kids played these days.

Her face lit up with excitement. “Yay! I have tons of games on my ship, you can help me sort through them and pick one out.” She pulled out her phone and beamed them up to her room on her ship. Hopefully she’d have at least one game that would be entertaining to play, if not Snatcher might have to teach her a game he knew.


	31. Theme Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the drabble event: Someone decides to pretend to be either Snatcher or the prince’s vengeful spirit (ooh spooky) as part of a scooby-doo style plot/ halloween thing/ theme park gimmick that wound up being a bit insensitive/ etc... Snatcher is not amused.

Hat Kid had assured him that the Halloween Festival at the theme park above the Metro would be fun. She’d begged and pleaded and bothered him until he’d agreed to go with her. He needed to get out of the forest more anyway so he’d agreed to go to get her to shut up.

He now wished he hadn’t. It was too loud and noisy. Kids and teens were everywhere, running amok like wild animals. All the ‘scary’ stuff was annoying in how cheap and gimmicky it was. He was the only real scary thing in the entire place and he was disguised to look like Hat Kid, just with a different Halloween mask. But all of that was mild in comparison to what he was facing now.

‘VANESSA’S MANOR’ read the sign in large red letters in the font meant to resemble words scrawled in blood that was so overdone it had become tacky years ago. Underneath it in smaller letters read ‘Experience the Terror of Queen Vanessa the Ice Witch and Her Fabled Prince!’ It was a ‘haunted’ house meant for _children_. That wasn’t a tale meant for children. And what was with the ‘Her Fabled Prince’ part? He certainly wasn’t _her_ prince, never was, even if that is what she’d called him.

“Snatcher what’s…” Hat Kid began as she backtracked to him. “Oh, that’s uh… something, huh?” At least she had the decency to be made mildly uncomfortable by it.

“Nah, it’s _fine_ kid, let’s go inside.” He grabbed her wrist and dragged her around towards the entrance.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep, I’m sure. I’m already here just to suffer, I might as well maximize on that, right?” And he was morbidly curious about just how _bad_ it would be. The tale of Queen Vanessa and _the_ Prince had been told in multiple different ways over the years. None of them ever got it right due to no one but him and Vanessa knowing the exact details and his early efforts to erase the tale – only really succeeding in erasing his name and who exactly he’d been – but they’d all handled it with mostly respect so he’d had little problems with any of it. But this was something else entirely. This was a funhouse meant to scare and entertain children at a theme park.

Getting in was the standard affair of ‘you must be this tall to enter’ and paying for tickets before waiting for an appropriately sized group to enter with. Hat Kid paid for it because she was stupidly rich for a kid and all of what little money Snatcher snatched from his victims went to buying books.

The first room was dark and cold with machine produced fog rolling across the ground accompanied by the distant sound of rattling chains and dripping water as the door rolled ominously closed behind them. On one shadowy wall hung a figure held up by chains wrapped around their upper arms. By happenstance they’d gotten the chained position right, most retellings had him chained by his ankle on the floor or by his wrists above his head, toes barely able to touch the floor. This was _so much_ worse, it made him angry and nauseous at the same time.

With a clap of fake thunder, ‘lighting’ flashed through a phony barred window on the wall, illuminating the figure, making it easy for even mortal eyes to see. They’d hired and actual human for this role at least, not a cat like would’ve been expected given the location. A few seconds later, with the next boom of thunder and lighting, the human ripped himself off the wall with vengeful wail and fake screech of breaking metal. It was loud and flashy, followed a rush towards the group, spooking most of them into running deeper into the next room.

Snatcher didn’t even flinch, he’d known that was coming. Instead he glared at ‘the Prince’ wearing fake tattered regal clothing and makeup to look like a zombie of all things. He _hated_ it. He was tempted to either snatch the actor’s soul and eat it in front of him or blast him into bits, making this a _true_ horror scene and then eat his soul as it left his broken body. Before he could do either though…

“You’re rude,” Hat Kid said, still standing beside him. “You know the Prince was a real person, right? What Queen Vanessa did to him and the entire kingdom isn’t some scary folktale, it _really_ happened. So, you shouldn’t make light of his suffering by turning it into a haunted house attraction full of cheap jump scares and spooky sounds.”

The actor paused and sighed. “I don’t really care. I was paid to do this so bring it up with my employer if offends you that much. So just…”

Snatcher summoned a row of blasts under the wall under the wall the actor had been ‘hanging’ from. That parts not obliterated by the blast crashed to the ground with a crash, dragging part of the ceiling down with it. Both Hat Kid and the actor startled, ducking away. Snatcher took advantage of this by snatching the actor’s soul, grabbing his attention. Before he could more than open his mouth to make a protest, Snatcher ate it, killing him instantly. A few more quick blasts in the right places had the rest of the ceiling starting to fall onto them. Before it could though, Snatcher pulled Hat Kid into his pocket dimension.

“Uh… Snatcher,” Hat Kid said as he snapped into his usual form, abandoning the mask and cloak. “I feel like we could’ve handled that without violence.”

“Yes, but I didn’t want to. They were making a mockery of my death; I’m not going to stand for that.” Even under the good mood eating a soul had put him in, he was still outraged. He’d been chained up in that basement for _days_ at the very least, possibly a week or more, he had no idea because it had _felt_ like an eternity before Moonjumper finally came along and got him out. And those _assholes_ had turned it into a cheap jump scare as part of a theme park attraction.

Hat Kid took a deep breath and sighed, shaking her head. “Well, I can’t blame you for being upset, that was very pecked up. And you only killed one guy so I guess that’s not that bad. The Halloween Festival is probably ruined now though so that’s a bummer. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Thank you for coming with me. Sorry it ended like that for you though.”

“Nah, I got to eat a soul so I feel like overall, that wasn’t a bad way to end the night.” And he’d ended a mockery of his suffering and death, that was good. Hopefully people would learn and never do that again. That was unlikely though, the further in time they got away from the event, the more people would view it as not a huge deal. He wasn’t going to tolerate it if he ever saw any such thing ever again though. So anyone who tried it better watch out if he was in the area at the time.


	32. Something's Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Omygod, your ideas and writing are absolutely amazing! If your still doing prompts, would you take your fix “Chat” further? Like Moonjumper takes Snatcher to Hat Kids ship, where she is currently visiting with some other characters. CC and Mu or The Conductor and DJ Grooves want to share their new movie ideas. Hat Kid immediately knows something’s wrong. Please!!

Cooking was one of the things Hat Kid just wasn’t interested in. Food was great, she loved eating, but making it was a real pain and not fun at all. But it was Cooking Cat’s thing and she’d gotten Mu into too. So Hat Kid let the two of them to play around in her kitchen while she translated a recipe from her one and only cookbook for them.

Their enthusiasm made it the most fun cooking session Hat Kid had ever had. Not that that was saying much because cooking just wasn’t fun to her. But she was still grateful for the distraction when the sound of the kitchen door flopping open came from behind her.

She placed the cook book on the counter before snapping around to see who it was. … “Snatcher!” She hadn’t expected to see him here ever. Normally when he wanted to talk to her, he went to his spot in her room and waited. He’d had to shrink quite a bit to fit through the kitchen doors too, something she’d never seen him do before.

“Hey kiddo,” she said with his usual cocky grin though.

“You,” Mu said with a huff, crossing her arms and glaring at him. “You’re garbage.”

“Uh… Mu, maybe don’t insult the powerful specter,” Cooking Cat said with a grimace as she put a hand on Mu’s shoulder.

“I’ll do what I _want_. He’s a bastard and I hate him.”

“Eh, it’s whatever,” he said with a dismissive handwave. There was something off about it though? Like, the movement didn’t seem _quite_ right. Though Hat Kid couldn’t pin down exactly why, maybe she was just imagining things. “Hate me if you wish, I can’t be bothered to care.”

“Please be nice Mu,” Hat Kid said. “He’s my BFF so you guys need to get along.”

“You’re insane, befriending _him_. But whatever, we all knew that already. Let’s get back to cooking.” Mu turned away to face the stove again.

“You want to help us cook Snatcher?” Hat Kid was pleased by the idea of spending time with multiple of her friends at once, it didn’t happen often.

“I’m a ghost kid, what makes you think I’d have any interest in cooking?” He moved his arms as he spoke, not too unusual but… still it still didn’t seem right.

A tad worried now, Hat Kid jogged over to him. She _might_ be imagining things but more often than not when her instincts told her something was off, it _was_. “Are you okay?” she asked, leaning to whisper so Cooking Cat and Mu wouldn’t hear. “Is something wrong?”

Snatcher’s grin widened. “You really do care about me, huh? How sweet!”

“Um… yes of course I care about you, you’re my BFF. But you didn’t answer my question. You seem a bit off today so… what’s up with that?”

“Oh, lots of stuff really. I’ve been having a rather bad day, things just keep going wrong.” Okay, yeah, he wasn’t just a bit off, he was _super_ off. He would _never_ be open like that. “It’s about to get better though.”

He snapped forward, wrapping a hand around her throat before she could react. Squeezing, he lifted her, leaving her feet to dangle several feet off the ground as she pawed at his hand.

“Hey!” Mu shouted from the other side of the room followed a second later by the sound of magic blasting.

“Let’s not anger the powerful specter,” Snatcher said. “It’s not a smart idea, especially when I have a hostage.”

Mu growled in frustration, meaning she thankfully probably hadn’t been hit by the blast. Vision starting to grow fuzzy already, Hat Kid pulled out her umbrella and whacked Snatcher with it.

“Nope, can’t hurt me,” he said with a giggle. _Not_ how he normally laughed at all.

He ducked back through the kitchen doors into the central area and tossed her. She hit the glass window with a thump before falling to the floor. Gasping for breath, she struggled to stand up and retrieve her umbrella from where it had fallen. She straightened in time to see Snatcher had jumped down from the balcony and Mu and Cooking Cat and run out of the kitchen to watch what was going on.

“It’s not him,” Hat Kid said. “It’s someone pretending to be him.” Another ghost probably, they could shapeshift after all and change their voices. So, she _knew_ it wasn’t Snatcher.

“Nope, kiddo, I assure you, it’s me. Want some proof?” He shapeshifted to look an awful lot like the pictures she’d seen of the Prince in Vanessa’s mansion. “Let’s have some fun though.” He snapped, forming a magic barrier just in time to block Mu from jumping onto him with her teeth bared, it would’ve been funny under different circumstances.

More barriers popped up, boxing the two of them in. Hat Kid rushed him, smacking him with the umbrella. It did nothing of course, he was a ghost, without the blue potion she couldn’t hurt him. He giggled again as he summoned a pecking _sword_ into his hand.

“You know,” he said with a grin as he lifted it, “I never actually learned how to use one of these. You’d _think_ I would, being a prince and all, but nope, no one ever taught me. I learned to play the cello instead which honestly is more interesting anyway, more useful, less cliché. But that should make this interesting.” He swung at her.

She jumped back, avoiding it quite easily because it was slower that she would’ve thought. “You’re a bastard! Why are you doing this?”

“I’m bored and it’s fun.” He swung again, sloppy and slow, far too easy to dodge. He _really_ didn’t know how to use a melee weapon. So _why_ was he using one? Especially when he had magic.

He insisted on it though, slashing at her some more. If she didn’t know better, she’d said he was purposefully making it easy to dodge his attacks. He wasn’t even using _magic_ other than for the barriers. She attacked back at every opportunity, smacking him with her umbrella, throwing her own exploding cocktails at him with the brewing hat which did nothing. But what else could she do? She was boxed in with him, she was _going_ to fight.

“You know,” he eventually said with a sigh, “I was expecting you to call out to me during this battle. Appeal to the ‘real’ me and all that, normally when one’s loved one attacks them, that’s what they do. But you’re just wailing away at me like it’s no big deal if you hurt your BFF or not.”

“Huh? What are you _talking_ about asshole? You’re not giving me any choice! Stop impersonating Snatcher and trying to hit me with your sword and I’ll stop attacking you.” She ducked in to whack him again, hard as she could in the midsection.

“I told you I’m not impersonating him, I’m the real Snatcher. I even proved it to you.”

“You didn’t prove shit! If I can find out about that, so can other people and ghosts. So _stop_ impersonating him, it’s _rude_!”

He sighed again and stopped attacking. She came in for another whack but this time he caught the umbrella, dropping the sword to do so. He lifted it, bringing her up with it, kicking as she clung to the umbrella’s handle. “I could kill you but… I have a bit of a soft spot for kids. And you’re an alien, that makes you interesting. I suppose instead, I shall reveal the game, you’re lack of understanding makes it less fun. Though, I suppose I can’t blame you for that, one would not normally think a powerful ghost could be possessed or controlled by another being. It’s unprecedented for sure.”

Before she could ask what the heck _that_ meant, the air above and a bit behind Snatcher shimmered. Another being faded into existence faded into that space. Gray and misshapen hands, face, and head, in dirty once regal clothing. There were red strings coming form his fingers, going into Snatcher’s back. He moved his fingers and Snatcher moved, letting go of the umbrella. Hat Kid somehow managed to land on her feet and not lose balance, barely though.

“I’m Moonjumper. I hail from the horizon.” He bowed slightly. Snatcher, still obviously in his control mimicked the move, a bit slower and stiffer. … That explained the odd slow movements, he was being controlled like a puppet.

“Let him go!” Hat Kid pointed her umbrella at Moonjumper, still ready to do battle. He may be floating too high for her to reach but she’d find a way if she had to.

He giggled, very similar to the way he’d made Snatcher giggle. “I suppose I can. I had my fun and he was vulnerable to your attacks so you gave him quite the beating so at least someone’s hurting. Maybe we’ll play this game some other time and have a _real_ fight. I think I’d win. Bye!” He lifted a hand and waved, making Snatcher do this same.

“It was fun,” he made Snatcher say before vanishing in a puff of fog.

Free of the red strings, Snatcher slumped limply to ground with a groan. He mumbled something that was probably a curse word but Hat Kid wasn’t sure.

“Ha!” Mu shouted. The barriers were gone too, allowing her and Cooking Cat to see what was happening. “You won Hat Kid, good job! Take that you dumb noodle ghost! It’s what you get!”

“Like I told you, it wasn’t him,” Hat Kid said, glaring at her. “You didn’t see, but it _wasn’t_ him. So _be nice_.” She crouched down beside him as he shifted into his normal shape. “You okay?”

“No,” he said with a groan. “You hit real hard kid. And as a whole, being puppeteered ain’t fun.”

“I thought you were immune to physical attacks most of the time.”

“Most of the time yeah, not all the time.”

“Oof.” Hat Kid grimaced. She’d hit him an awful lot, huh? “I’m sorry.”

“Whatever.” He vanished, teleporting away like a jerk. He could’ve stayed and explained things more while he rested some. She’d have to track him down later for answers and to make sure he was okay.

“You okay hon?” Cooking Cat asked from across the room with Mu. “You maybe want to explain what just happened?”

With a sigh, Hat Kid stood up. “I’m fine. And uh… basically Snatcher was being controlled by a guy named Moonjumper. He was a _real jerk_ and I hate him.” If he ever showed his face around here again, she’d smack it with an umbrella. He deserved no less.


	33. Adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Snatcher loses a bet and has to spend time with Hat Kid actually cooperating with the BFF contract

The excited look on Hat Kid’s face as she entered Subcon Village and spotted Snatcher didn’t bode well for him. There was only one thing it could be, right? Unless it was something else entirely that he’d like even less. Either way, it was too late for him to do anything about it now.

Not letting his dread show, he quickly finished with his newest contractor and sent them on their way. As soon as they were gone, Hat Kid ran up to him as predicted with a borderline evil grin on her face.

“Guess what,” she said as soon as she stood before him.

“You changed you mind about staying on this planet and are here to wish me farewell? Meaning I’ll finally be able to exist in peace again without fear of you showing up and ruining everything. And even better, you’re taking Moonjumper with you.” Snatcher could hope, right?

“Nope. I won the bet. Not only are the Conductor and DJ Grooves still happily together, I even caught them making out in the studio basement. I took a picture too for proof. They were _real_ mad and embarrassed because I forgot I had the flash on so they caught me right after. I had to run away. You want to see the pic?”

“No, absolutely not.” That was the absolute _last_ thing Snatcher wanted to see. And this was the absolute last time he made a bet with Hat Kid about the directors’ relationship. Given their volatile natures he’d been _sure_ they’d have a big fight and break up in less than three months. Apparently not though. He still doubted it would last much longer but he wasn’t letting Hat Kid goad him into any more bets about it no matter how sure he was about that.

Unlike the last bet, giving her a plastic pony or fulfilling his promise should he lose the bet in a similar fashion wasn’t an option. This time she’d made sure to make her reward for winning be not so easily cheated. There was no contract so he could still legally back out of it but he’d never hear the end of it if he did from both her and all the Subconites she’d befriended. It just wasn’t worth the hassle so…

“That means I lost though,” he said with a sigh before shifting to be a clone of her. Being the same size as her would make spending the day with her easier. “So what silly nonsense game do you want to play?” That’s what she wanted, right? To play games with him all day instead of the hour or two he normally allowed. Possibly she’d insist on games he refused to play too such as tag or something with her bouncy ball that had his face on it that he still hated after the nonsense on the cruise ship.

“Actually, instead of playing, I was thinking we could go on an adventure. You know, kind of like I do with Mu and Bow sometimes but just you and me and uh… more exciting.” That couldn’t mean anything good. “Is there anything around the forest you need to get done before we go?”

“Not really.” The Subconites could handle the contractor who wasn’t even likely to cause problems. “Let’s just get it over with.” The sooner they started, the sooner the adventure would be over. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” With a rather ominous grin, Hat Kid pulled out her phone. She beamed them up to the central room of her ship. Instead of then beaming them down to another part of the planet, she ran over to the command desk and sat down.

Snatcher walked over to get a better look. She was… typing something into the ship’s console. “Uh… kiddo, what are you doing?”

She gave him another evil grin as she stopped typing and lifted her hand to grab the handle on the left of the command desk. She yanked it down and view of the planet through the window went away as the ship turned and… suddenly they were off hurtling through space.

Hat Kid turned her chair to face him. “We’re warp jumping so we should probably be there in about an hour.”

“Uh… first of all, I didn’t agree to this.” He wasn’t necessarily against the idea but he’d have liked a _warning_ and an actual invite to see another planet or whatever. Not to mention time to prepare for such a journey. “Second, _where_ are we going?” Not that it would mean anything to him, he only knew his planet.

“Well, you didn’t agree to it but you did agree to fulfill you side of the BFF contract and this is the kind of thing BFFs do. I would’ve brought Bow and Mu too but you and Mu don’t get along so we’re doing it like this instead. And uh… I actually don’t know for sure where we’re going. I just typed in some coordinates and told the ship will take us to the nearest planet to those coordinates. That’s what adventures are all about.”

Well wasn’t that just perfect? Snatcher was stuck on a spaceship with a lunatic child who thought they were BFFs, heading to some unknown planet. … It was certainly an adventure all right. Hopefully it was one he wouldn’t regret.


	34. Relax

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to request a drabble please. What if Snatcher gets more affectonate, or at least less grumpy when he gets tired (or sleepy. CAN he get sleepy?)

Snatcher was knitting. Hat Kid knew he did such things, how else would he have made the bodies the Subconites used or any of the rewards he’d given to her for completing his various Death Wish contracts? She never thought she’d ever actually see him do it though. And yet here he was, sitting in his spot in her room knitting what looked like a blanket.

Did ghosts need blankets? They didn’t sleep, right? Was it for one of the Subconites? Or was he just making it for fun? Doing something ‘for fun’ wasn’t something she associated with him. But who knows? People were full of surprises sometimes.

He didn’t look up as she stepped fully into the room even though he had to know she was there; he was facing the door. He just sat there, peacefully knitting away, the gentle click-clack of his knitting needles just audible over the ever-present hum of the ship’s engines.

Hat Kid walked over to stand next to him. “Is that a blanket?”

“Yep.” Not even a snarky reply. In fact, he sounded kind of tired. Which wasn’t surprising, he’d been doing a lot for the Death Wish contracts lately. He’d said he had one more planned but needed time to prepare for it. And part of that preparing probably meant he needed time to rest after their latest battle; it had been rather intense.

“What’s it for?”

Snatcher shrugged. “Nothing in particular. I just needed something to pass the time that doesn’t require me to think much.” That didn’t sound very fun but when one couldn’t sleep something like that was probably the next best thing. But other then tiredness, he seemed to be in a good mood, not even a little grumpy, which was great. Could Hat Kid somehow take advantage of this without ruining it?

She sat down next to him, kicking her feet out over the pillow pool below. “Well in that case, can I have it when you’re done?”

“Hmm… sure, I guess why not? From the look of things, you only have one blanket anyway, having a spare’s probably a good idea.”

“Cool! Thanks!”

He grunted in response.

Was there anything else Hat Kid could do to take advantage of Snatcher’s chill mood? … Possibly but maybe she shouldn’t. She was already getting a free handknitted blanket out of it so maybe she should just leave him to relax on his own. … Or she could do something else.

She got up and ran over to her desk to get her handheld console before returning to sit next to him again. She could use some chill time too and playing video games is how she normally did that. They could both do their own things while also still hanging out together.


	35. Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say that the way you write the ahit characters is really great! I was wondering if I could request a fic about snatcher having to fight back vanessa (like how he did prior the the 'chat' fic)? I'm curious as to how she tries to sabotage the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back to doing these when I can which is occasionally.

It was snowing, making everyone mildly unhappy. None of the Subconites knew it was mostly unnatural snow though and Snatcher intended to keep it like that. Disguised as a Subconite on watch duty, he waited by the bridge as Vanessa grew closer.

Why did she feel the need to leave her frozen house and come over to the forest to harass him? Why couldn’t she just accept that there was nothing she could do to force him to come back to her? Why couldn’t she just _die_? The world would be a better place without her.

He thankfully didn’t have long to fume before she finally arrived, forcing her way through the ice barrier because brute force was the only language she understood.

Before she could spot him – he’d played this trick on her before, she probably wouldn’t fall for it a second time – Snatcher summoned a blast of magic under her feet. Unfortunately, she sensed it and quickly moved out of the way.

“My Prince, you’ve come to meet me!” More like _stop_ her, he wasn’t going to let her get through to the forest ever again, she’d done so far too many times as it was. “Are you ready to come back yet?”

He summoned a row of potions and tossed them at her. Ice spears broke them all in midair before they got anywhere near her.

She snarled. “I shall have to _take_ you back home then.” She shot out more ice, at him this time, easily dodged.

It had been a while since their battle but as always very rarely did either of them actually land a substantial blow. Snatcher couldn’t kill her no matter how hard he tried. All he could do was slowly push her back towards her manor. But more and more often these days, she wasn’t able to push him anywhere. Maybe one day he’d be strong enough to actually end her, hopefully anyway. For now though, it took almost all he had to get her back to the clearing her manor resided in – the clearing that _used_ to be a bustling village before she destroyed it with snow and ice. Thankfully today, she chose to give up there instead of at the manor door.

Snatcher could’ve chased her as she fled but it would serve no purpose and would only exhaust him more. Besides, the manor is where she wanted to bring him and she’d attempted to lay traps for him in the past, he’d always managed to escape but he didn’t want to push his luck. So he just watched instead, waiting until she’d vanished from sight and stayed gone for several minutes before leaving himself, teleporting to his reading hollow to rest.


	36. Evil Laugh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ceoofnobodyasked: I’d like to do a request if it hasn’t been done before, where Snatcher strongarms his very first contractor into doing his bidding. He’s experimenting with what was and what doesn’t work in his soul stealing routine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Snatcher isn't really strongarming anyone but he is working on figuring out his soul contract routine.

The fire spirits were back again. Subcon was now a place of very high magical energy so of course it attracted them when it was time for them to pass on but that didn’t make them any less of a nuisance. Snatcher might’ve been willing to tolerate them if their rituals didn’t inadvertently create barriers that were difficult of him to get around.

Last time he’d managed to take them out but it had cost a lot of time, effort, and energy. His shadow magic wasn’t effective against their fire/light magic for obvious reasons. If enough of them banded together they could probably take him out too and there were more this time than last time. So he’d just hire someone else to handle them; that’s what one did when faced with a problem they couldn’t easily solve on their own.

He had a growing reputation to uphold though. He could just invite people into his forest. … He also didn’t have any money to hire anyone anyway. So it would have to be an intruder and he’d have to still eat their soul afterwards. … Perhaps he could give them a chance to get out alive when he was done with them though. Hmm… he’d have to consider that later.

First he had to figure out how he was going to get them to do his bidding. A proper legal contract made perfect sense. He could have them sign away their soul to him, giving them no real choice of course. Which was illegal but he was sole ruler of the forest now, he could make the laws.

He’d have to make it dramatic too, really scare them so they don’t dare even try to disobey. … And for fun. He’d always wanted to be scary but had always been a bit too scrawny and small but he was a big bad powerful soul eating ghost now, he could do whatever he wanted. So he was going to have fun with this whole soul contract business because why the hell not?

Which is what lead to him looking into a mirror, making faces, trying to find the scariest expression. With the snake inspired form he’d chosen, a large evil possibly a bit smug grin definitely looked the best. He needed an evil laugh to go with that grin though.

“Mwahahaha,” he tried but… it was too cliché. Maybe if he tried it louder? … “MWAHAHAHA!” … Nope, still terrible.

He tried a few more, changing his expression and the way he held himself or moved his hands. They all felt lame and not even mildly intimidating though. … He could go for creepy maybe? … No, he had what it took to be full scary, that’s what he was going to do, he just had to…

“What are you doing Boss?”

He snapped around to see a Subconite had let themself into his hollow. It was pretty wide open though so it wasn’t surprising.

“Practicing my scary laugh,” he explained because there was no lie he could tell that would make him look better.

“You’re doing great, real scary.” They gave him a thumbs up. “Need some help? I uh… used to work in theater when I was alive. So I know a bit about dramatic evil laughs and stuff.”

“Hmm… I suppose I could use a second opinion, don’t tell anyone though, got it?”

“No worries, I won’t.”

**[About an hour later]**

“AHAHAHAHAHA FOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!”

“That’s the one Boss! You got it!”

Snatcher had liked it quite a bit too. It was loud and confident with an added insult at the end, what more could he ask for? So, that would be his evil laugh from now on. He’d figure out more aspects of how he wanted to handle soul contracts later after he actually got one. It was likely to be a fairly regular thing because the fire spirits would likely come again after this, so he was going to make it as fun as possible.


	37. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The-malwere: Hello again! If the drabble event is still going I'd like to request Snatcher getting I nightmare of sorts I know you headcanon him as being able to sleep but if he can get close to it he could probably have a kinda nightmare like thing? ( sorry if this is long )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is inspired by doodledrawsthings' 'Oh the Humanity' AU on Tumblr (go check them out, their art is truly wonderful) because I like the AU and how else was I going to fill the prompt when I would otherwise have to break my headcanon about Snatcher not being able to sleep.

_Bouquet of flowers in hand, Snatcher strode though the wide open doors of the manor. They were frozen in place as were the guards holding them open. Vanessa was in a foul mood, he needed to apologize._

_It grew colder and colder with each step further in until he was shivering. The stairs were frozen over but somehow weren’t slippery… odd. … Vanessa’s room was at the very top, the ice was coming from there, flowing out from the crack beneath the door. He knocked._

_No response. … He knocked again. … Still nothing. So… he grabbed the frozen knob and let himself in._

_Inside was warm; a fire burned in the fireplace lighting only a small part of the otherwise dark room. Vanessa was in the darkest corner, audibly sobbing into her hands, the shadows clinging to her like living things._

_“I’m sorry,” Snatcher said as he walked further in, stopping at the edge of the fire’s flickering light._

_Vanessa didn’t look up from her hands or even turn to face him. “I thought you loved me.”_

_“I do. I’ve always loved you, you know that. I’m really sorry.” What had he even done this time? Look at one of the female staff too long? Spend too much time at his studies again? Say the wrong thing on accident? Something else? Or was she just being insecure again?_

_“You don’t. You never did. You never will.”_

_“That’s not true, I…”_

_“_ Liar _!” She snapped around with a shriek and gust of freezing cold air strong enough to put out the fire, sending the room into total darkness. Only her glowing red eyes were visible. “You’re a cheater and a liar!”_

_He flinched hard enough to make the chains holding him to the frozen wall rattle. They hurt. He couldn’t feel his fingers anymore. “Please, I’m sorry Vanessa, I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry. I would never…”_

Something slapped his face and suddenly the cold and pain was gone, so was Vanessa. He sat up, panting hard as he held a hand to his chest, his heart racing.

“You okay?”

He looked to his left to see Hat Kid sitting beside him in the pillow pool with a worried expression on her face. … He was on her ship because he had nowhere else to go after her dumb Time Piece had turned him into a gross fragile human again. So then what was… a dream, Vanessa and the manor had been in a dream. He’d forgotten those were a thing. … He’d have preferred to never be reminded of them.

“Sorry I slapped you,” Hat Kid said. “But you wouldn’t wake up and you seemed to be having a _really_ bad dream so I had to. Are you okay now though? Do you want to talk about it?” Maybe you’d like a cup of…”

“No, I’m fine,” he interrupted, putting on a firm voice to hide the lingering sense of dread the dream had left him with. He then stood and pulled himself out of the pillow pool.

“Are you sure? I know it’s pretty heavy stuff but I’m not…”

“I’m _sure_. Just go back to bed.” Without another glance at her and her _pity_ , he left the room. He was done with sleeping for tonight or ever again. He didn’t need it anyway. The Time Piece would be fixed soon and then everything could go back to normal… hopefully.


	38. Sleep Time Patrol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ceoofnobodyasked: Prompt request: One of the subconnites has a Nightmare about Queen Vanessa, so Snatcher has to calm him down.

Shrouded in eternal darkness thanks to Snatcher’s magic and influence, there was no proper night or day in Subcon. Despite that everyone kept track of time anyway. There was even a designated sleep time that had been put in place so long ago no one was sure who’d decided upon it or what time it took place based off the sun’s time in the outside world.

Most of the Subconites slept in their tree hollow houses but a good chunk of them chose to sleep in the nooses scattered around the forest instead. Snatcher however couldn’t sleep no matter how much he wished he could at times – overall it was probably for the best though. Instead he often chose to patrol the forest during sleep time. Not that there was anything to patrol for, not a lot happened in the forest that he couldn’t sense between his magic senses and his traps laid about the place. But he liked doing it more often than not anyway; it was relaxing.

Well, most of the time it was relaxing. Coming across a Subconite sleeping in a noose and thrashing hard enough to make the rope swing back and forth was very _not_ relaxing. It was an unpleasant image and there was only one thing he could be having a nightmare about, right? It wasn’t something anyone in the forest ever wanted to think about.

With a sigh, Snatcher approached and wrapped his hands around the Subconite, stilling the rope but not ending the Subconite’s struggles and soft whimpering. “Wake up,” he said, giving his body a squeeze, making it squeak because he was one of the ones who’d wanted such a modification.

On the second squeeze his finally woke up with a small yelp. He looked all around before looking up at Snatcher again. “Uh… hey Boss.”

“Yes, hello.” Snatcher let go of him, careful to make sure the rope wouldn’t sway much when released.

“Um uh… thanks for waking me. That was uh… not a good dream.” He grabbed the noose and wriggled out of it, dropping to the ground. “Do you think maybe I could uh… go on patrol with you instead of going back to sleep?”

“I guess, just be sure to stay out of the way.”

“No worries Boss, I’ll be good.” The Subconites always were they joined the patrol after Snatcher woke them from a nightmare. With how recent Vanessa’s latest attempt to take over the forest had been it was likely more Subconites would be joining them before sleep time was over.


	39. Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope you’re okay! This is only for when you’re felling better, and even then, only if you want to. Prompt: Due to Cooking Cat’ nine lives, she’s been alive for a very long time. She even used to be the royal chef for Subcon when The Prince was a child. The Prince and she were close. Before the ice bomb, she packed up her things to continue her cooking legacy elsewhere. Now, Hat Kid want to introduce Snatcher to Cooking Cat. He recognizes we while she doesn’t.

“If you’re going to be hanging out on my ship, you should meet everyone else that’s chilling here too,” Hat Kid said as she smiled up at Snatcher.

“I’d rather not,” Snatcher replied, not even bothering to look up from his book. “I’m here to host the Death Wish contracts, _not_ to ‘hang out’. So if you’re not here to work on your latest contract, leave me alone.”

“Ah, but it’ll be fun.”

“I can’t imagine a world where meeting any of your friends would be fun.”

“But… _you’re_ my friend.”

“Exactly. If you chose to see me as a friend, your idea of what a friend is, is clearly pretty far out there. I’d rather not possibly discover the extent of it.” And he wasn’t a people person; meeting new people was never fun unless he was going to eat their soul or force them to do his bidding and _then_ eat their soul.

“Well… fine, be like that then.” She turned and strode out of the room, leaving him alone at last.

Alas, it was only a matter of minutes before the bedroom door was swishing open once more. With a sigh, Snatcher looked up to see her returning. She wasn’t alone though, she was accompanied by… an orange cat wearing a chef’s outfit. …

Was that… _Cookie_. Surely, it wasn’t, it couldn’t be. Cookie had been a cook in Snatcher’s childhood home and that was a _long_ time ago. It just looked like her, probably her descendant.

“Snatcher, this is Cooking Cat,” Hat Kid said, stopping in the middle of the room with her. “And Cooking Cat, this is Snatcher.”

“Howdy,” she said, lifting a paw in greeting. “I’ve head of you. You’re from Subcon, right?” Even her voice sounded the exact same as Snatcher remembered. … It was a long time ago though, his memories of that time were rather foggy so it was probably just his imagination.

“Yes, Subcon is my domain. I recommended staying out of it if you want to keep possession of your soul.”

“No worries, as much as I’d like to return someday, I just can’t bear to see it as it is now, all dead and gloomy and stuff, you know?”

“Wait, you’ve been to Subcon before?” Hat Kid asked, saving Snatcher from having to reply.

“Yep, sure have. It’s where I got my first big job as a cook, working for royalty even. It was a grand old time. And uh of course it was before the whole ice queen incident. I got out of there only a couple years before that so I guess I’m pretty lucky, huh? I don’t fancy the thought of losing a life to being frozen into a block of ice. Not to the mention the _tragedy_ of the whole thing.”

Welp, there went Snatcher’s reassurances. Cooking Cat was indeed Cookie; she was a cat so of course she had nine lives, he’d somehow forgotten about that. But this meant one of the people he’d known while alive was still alive, someone he’d been on friendly terms with. Someone who’d known him when he was a kid. And that was just… _weird_ and uncomfortable. At _least_ she didn’t recognize him, it would’ve been _awful_ if she did. But still Snatcher didn’t want to be around her anymore so…

“If you’re going to be dragging your friends in here one by one for me to meet,” he said to Hat Kid who was looking at Cookie with an expression that suggested she had many questions, “I have better things to be doing.” He closed his book and teleported out before either of them could reply.

There was a chance Cookie might say things that would lead Hat Kid to figuring out Snatcher had known her once upon a time. There was nothing he could do to try to stop that though without looking suspicious and giving it away himself, potentially to both of them, so all he could do was hope it wouldn’t happen.


	40. Play Nice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Hat Kid bets that Snatcher can’t be nice for a day. Out of spite, Snatcher tries to prove her wrong.

So far Snatcher had lost every bet he’d made with Hat Kid – only two so far but that was two too many – but he _wasn’t_ going to lose this one. He could be nice for a full twenty-four hours, that was _easy_. He used to play nice all the time when he was alive. It had been easier to do then because he’d been a nicer person in general but he still had practice so he _had_ this.

It unfortunately meant he had to spend the day with Hat Kid because there was no other way she could know for certain if he won the bet or not. He could deal with it though, twenty-four hours wasn’t that long especially when compared to how long he’d existed for so far.

Naturally she brought him to her ship. “You want to play some video games for a bit and _really_ test your niceness?” she asked, grinning up at him as soon as the ship finished beaming them in next to the pillow pool in her room.

“Sure, I guess.” Snatcher had never played a video game before and didn’t know anything about them. So at least he’d be experiencing something new during this awful ordeal. “Sounds like fun.” And who knows, it might be.

“Awesome.” Hat Kid grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the door. He let her, even shrinking himself to fit comfortably in the hallway. Being nice didn’t entail letting her do whatever she wanted to him but if he tried to protest to anything, he was very likely to slip and say something mean. So, unless she crossed a line or pushed something too far, he’d mostly play along with whatever she wanted until he won the bet. But as soon as the timer was up, he’d spit every child-appropriate insult he could think of at her before leaving.

In the central room the console and TV were already on and set up with spaces for four people to sit and play together. Bow and Moonjumper stood next to it, seemingly waiting for Snatcher and Hat Kid which didn’t bode well for how this day was going to play out.

“Let me guess,” Moonjumper said, grinning at Snatcher, “Hat Kid made a bet with you, claiming you couldn’t be nice for a day and naturally you accepted that bet, correct?”

“Yep,” Hat Kid said. “And that includes being nice to Moonjumper.” She smiled evilly up at Snatcher.

“And _you_ have to be nice to Snatcher,” Bow Kid added, mirroring Hat Kid’s evil grin at Moonjumper. Clearly the two of them had the same if not similar bet going on.

And _clearly_ this was a planned thing between Hat Kid and Bow because they enjoyed being troublesome brats, Moonjumper was the absolute _last_ person Snatcher wanted to be nice to. Moonjumper undoubtedly felt the same way which was the only real consolation to this whole thing. It was far too late to go back on the bet now though and Snatcher was going to win no matter what it took so…

“I can be nice,” he said as he floated over to ‘stand’ beside Moonjumper. “We’ll be like besties, right MJ?” He put his arm around Moonjumper’s shoulders which was _weird_ and _gross_ because it was Snatcher’s mutilated corpse and he _didn’t want to touch it_ but Moonjumper didn’t like being touched. And pushing Snatcher away would count as being mean, wouldn’t it? And if Moonjumper lost the bet now, he would leave and thus Snatcher wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore… hopefully anyway.

Moonjumper tensed away from him but didn’t push him or show any signs of forcing him away. “Uh… yeah, best friends,” he said, his voice strained. “Now uh… if you could please kindly cease touching me, I’d greatly appreciate it.” Dammit! Why’d he have to be like that? Peck him and his stupid forced politeness.

Snatcher pulled away, resisting the urge to shake his arm in disgust. This bet had suddenly gotten a whole lot more personal. Not only was he going to win he was also going to do his absolute best to make sure Moonjumper lost his bet with Bow.


	41. Ice Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I just found your series of fanfics on AO3 and there amazing!! If your still taking request I have one. Mu, Bow and Hat are in Subcon Forest and encounter Queen Vanessa who freezes the girls until their saved by Snatcher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, yay this is the final drabble in my inbox!
> 
> Second, while I did follow the prompt, I didn't follow the spirit of it. So spoiler alert, the kiddos die and become ghosts in this because that's evidently just how I roll now. This is the 4th time I've written Hat Kid dying (5th if you count a unpublished probably abandoned fic) so it's just kinda a thing now I guess. I'm still pretty non-graphic about it and it's not from her POV (or the POV of the other two children that die alongside her this time) so it's not nearly as bad as it could be but it's still potentially upsetting hence this heads up.

Snatcher heard and sensed the kids approaching his reading hollow before they were visible through the doorway. His hopes that they were just passing by were quickly dashed as they came around to the corner and invited themselves in.

“Howdy,” Hat Kid said, smiling wide and lifting a hand in greeting. “How’s it going?”

“Worse now that you three are here. What do you want?”

“We’re about to go explore the Ice Manor,” Mu said with far more excitement than any sane person should feel at such a prospect. None of the three of them were sane though so it wasn’t surprising.

“Yep,” Hat Kid agreed. “And Bow _insisted_ that we tell someone where we’re going ‘just in case something bad happens’.” She rolled her eyes, making her thoughts about that precaution obvious.

“It’s the smart thing to do. It’s one of the more dangerous things we’ve done.” Bow gave her a stern look before looking back up at Snatcher. “Moonjumper’s taking a nap right now so we’re telling you. If we’re not back in like uh… three hours is probably a good time, would come looking for us?”

If Snatcher were acting as a responsible adult to these children, he’d forbid them from going entirely. They weren’t his responsibility though and they’d likely disobey him and go anyway if he told them not to _and_ Hat Kid had gone before and come back perfectly fine. So he wasn’t worried… not that he would’ve been inclined to be so anyway. “Sure, if you’re not back in three hours, I’ll go find you.” It didn’t cost him anything to make that promise because they _would_ be back before then and would probably be bothering him again.

“Cool, thanks.” Bow gave him a smile and a thumbs up.

“Now let’s _go_ ,” Mu said. “I want to see the Ice Manor.” She grabbed the other two by their wrists and dragged them out.

“See you later,” Hat Kid called back, raising a hand in farewell.

“Yeah, whatever,” Snatcher grumbled before looking back down at his book.

About an hour later he looked up from it again. Magic was being used way over in the direction of Vanessa’s Manor. Bow and Hat Kid’s hat magic as well as ice magic which unless Mu suddenly had ice powers could only belong to Vanessa. Presumably the girls had been discovered and were now battling Vanessa.

What were they chances they’d win against her? They were tough, especially Hat Kid, but unless they found a way to make Vanessa vulnerable to their attacks, they were doomed to fail eventually. Hopefully they’d have the smarts to just run away. … They wouldn’t though, would they? All three of them were stubborn and brave to the point of idiocy at times. Which meant Snatcher was obligated to go help them because as much as he hated them there was no way he could let them die to Vanessa. Dammit, why’d they’d have to be such _idiots_?

He quickly put down his book and teleported as close as was possible. Which was half way down the ice corridor because the magic around the mansion itself prevented him from exiting his pocket dimension there. He could move fast physically when he needed to though and thus he was entering into the frozen clearing in a matter of seconds. From there, he quickly reached the manor.

Going around to the back where he sensed magic was still being used, he arrived just in time to see Vanessa grab Hat Kid’s arm as she was backed into a corner made by a wall of ice and the mansion’s rear wall. Snatcher immediately summoned a blast of magic underneath Vanessa but it was too late, by the time it went off, Hat Kid’s body was already incased in ice.

“My Prince!” Vanessa said, snapping around to face him, seemingly unhurt by his blast. “You like my newest statues?” Wait, that was plural so…

A few feet away both Bow and Mu were incased in ice as well. Fucking, _fuck_! Dammit! Snatcher slid back into his pocket dimension again, pulling the three of them in too. He’d deal with fighting Vanessa later – because she’d undoubtedly come looking for him after this – but he had to deal with _this_ first.

Arrayed before him now, the kids looked more like immaculately carved ice statues than anything else, their expressions locked ones of terror. He needed to break the ice immediately but _how_ did he do that without hurting them? And… and he couldn’t sense any life from them, they were dead. But… sometimes a freshly dead person could be revived so…

Mu’s soul left her body first. He could’ve easily grabbed it but chose not to. It didn’t fade but instead formed into a ghost, hovering above her frozen corpse. “W-where am I?” she asked as she looked around but thankfully not down yet. He’d deal with her _later_ though.

It was too late to save her but Bow and Hat Kid could still be brought back. Fighting panic, he summoned a hammer and heated chisel. He was tempted to use a blast of magic but it was likely to do more harm than good so he’d use the hammer and chisel to quickly break the ice around their faces so they could breath and then…

Before he could do more than line it up with Bow’s head, her soul left her body too, becoming a ghost above her head. Dammit! Hat Kid wasn’t far behind. Snatcher hadn’t even had any time to _try_ anything. If he’d arrived on the scene _sooner_ he could’ve _done something_ but… he was too late.

Letting the hammer and chisel fall to the ground, he looked up at the three new ghosts. They were looking at each other in horror and then down at the ice statues that had once been their bodies as they slowly realized what had been done to them.

Mu screamed and covered her eyes, pulling away in upset horror. Bow was silent, her now glowing mouth hanging open as she stared down at her frozen body. And Hat Kid started sobbing. All very reasonable responses to dying and seeing one’s own corpse. Freezing to death was one of the worst ways to go too. … At least it had been fairly quick though, right? Not that that made it much better.

“I’m sorry,” Snatcher said because what else could he say? “I should’ve come sooner.” Or listened to his initial instincts and not let them go to the manor at all. “I’m sorry.” It was useless to apologize but it was all he really had right now.

Leaving their frozen corpses in his pocket dimension for now, he exited into his reading hollow, the private one. Getting them away from the source of their discomfort came first. He should probably try to comfort them further, shouldn’t he? So they’d stop _crying_ and looking so distraught and horrified. He didn’t really know how to though so… he’d just do the best he could.


End file.
